Disaster Hearts
by kamikaze2007
Summary: Sometimes, common ground is all you need to break the ice with someone. However, despite being able to transform into a giant monster, Panne was never very good at that. When she finds that she shares a bloodstained, traumatic history with the last member of the Shepherds that she expects, everything goes very wrong, very fast. Pairing, character, and genre to be added later.
1. Rash Decisions

"We have more in common than you may think, you know."

Those words were almost physically painful to hear, but Panne couldn't argue against them.

On first glance, the Shepherds were a diverse group of wildly different people, and the last remaining Taguel was the most different from all of them. Who else was half beast and could transform into a giant rabbit-like monster at will? How many others had the distinction of being the last of their species? None of those were attributes that she held with pride; in fact, all they served to do was make her feel even more distanced from the Shepherds.

As to be expected from such a varied group, everyone had joined for their own reason, be it the realization that their previous employers had dark intentions, a yearning to get more powerful, or—for the skeezy man with blue hair—the desire to pick up women. Further setting herself apart, Panne joined because of her devotion to the leader's sister. The kind, loving Emmeryn made Panne feel that despite their past crimes against her, perhaps manspawn weren't so bad.

Then she took a look at the pervert and realized most of them were.

But Emmeryn was _so_ kind, _so_ understanding, that it balanced out and almost made up for most of the scum and villainy in the species that took Panne's family from her. And that was why she had joined the Shepherds. The kindness she was shown by Emmeryn had to be protected from those that would seek to snuff it out.

However, the day came that Emmeryn's radiant light was extinguished, despite the Shepherds' best efforts. Of all the death Panne had witnessed in her lifetime, few had hurt more than hopelessly watching the Exalt fall to her death. Just like that, she had been the helpless little girl that had her warren taken from her.

The one and only upside to Emmeryn's death was that it brought the Shepherds together and showed Panne that there was one thing every member had in common. The desire to protect the Exalt and her way of life brought them all together, and it would be her family that kept them that way. Panne had wanted to cry for the first time in years over Emmeryn's death, but this knowledge told her that there was something else she needed to do.

The hastily set up camp near the Plegian border, provided by the...coarse former khan of Ferox, was alive with the noises of rain and sobs. Using her advanced hearing, Panne located the source of the loudest cries and hesitantly stepped inside the tent they were coming from. The immediate reaction made her regret her decision, but something inside her told her to ignore the snooty blonde woman's protests and focus on answering the question posed by the slightly less pampered blonde girl. "I came to try and comfort you," she explained, a sudden feeling of sheepishness washing over her.

Of all the responses to get, she was hoping against a scoff, but alas, there it was. "Sorry if I'm skeptical, but you're not exactly the comforting type. Do understand."

"Shut your mouth," Panne snapped. "I did not come for you."

The girl who had been crying seconds earlier waved a hand weakly in her friend's direction. "Please, don't fight."

The woman huffed indignantly, but whatever argument she was going to attempt was cut off by sniffles. "As you wish, darling."

"Thanks Maribelle," the girl said. "Now why did you come, Panne?" Before Panne could answer, the princess' eyes welled up with tears once more and she said, "are you here to tell me to shut up? I bet my ugly crying is hell on your ears. I'll try to k-keep it down."

Panne shook her head, violently conscious of the oversized ears draped over her shoulders. "No. I came because..." Suddenly, she found herself at a loss for words. "I don't...I do not know."

"Lissa, I'll see her out if it pleases you," Maribelle insisted.

Lissa shot a glare at her friend. "You know, maybe you should get some air, Maribelle."

The woman dropped the parasol she had been holding, mouth agape. "Wh-what?"

"She needs to focus, and she can't do that with you nitpicking her every word," Lissa said, clearly tired of having to mediate a debate in her time of need. "Please, just for a moment." Maribelle stormed out indignantly, and Panne took a seat in front of Lissa. "Now what's up?"

Panne sighed, the sight of the usually spunky princess in such a state of despair a wonder for helping her collect her thoughts. "I know how you must be...no, how you _are_ feeling right now."

Lissa sniffled again, rubbing at her eye. "Y-you do?" After receiving a nod, she continued, "that's right. Your family got killed, didn't it?"

Another nod. "I have been in your exact position before. I feel that if there is anyone who can help you work your way through this pain, it would be me."

"Do you mean it?" Lissa asked, a glint in her eye that could have been either a tear forming or a glimmer of hope.

"The way you are now, it reminds me of myself right after it happened," Panne explained. "Er, that is, me after the destruction of my warren. You feel young and helpless, like your entire world has been taken from you and there's nothing you can do about it. I loved Emmeryn too. Not...not like you did, of course, but she showed me the best side of your kind, and I wish to repay her kindness in some way." A moment passed, during which neither person in the tent uttered a word. Each raindrop hitting the tent caused Panne's ears to twitch, and at one point, she heard Maribelle heave a dramatic sigh outside. Lissa looked like she was anticipating something, likely expecting Panne to elaborate on her offer to repay Emmeryn's kindness. However, no elaboration came, which ended in both women sitting in silence awkwardly.

Finally, Panne hastily started to leave, mumbling an apology under her breath. Lissa lunged forward and grabbed her wrist. "Hey. Thanks."

"I-I am no good at comfort. Apologies," Panne said again.

Lissa managed a smile. "You tried your best. And that's what matters. Thank you."

Panne nodded awkwardly before leaving the tent, telling Maribelle she could go back in with a glare.

Seconds after she had left, she was approached by the last person she wanted to speak to. "I saw that," he said in his infuriating accent.

"Begone," Panne spat.

Unfortunately, the intruder persisted. "Do correct me if I'm wrong, but do I sense a tender heart beating underneath that rough exterior?"

"I can hear your heart beat, and if you continue bothering me, it won't be underneath any exterior," she said quickly.

The man put a hand on his chest, a worried look flashing across his face for a second. "Er, sorry, let me try this again."

Panne whirled around, her ear nearly smacking him in his stupid, smug face. "You have one attempt before I disappear into this tent."

Her threat caused him to nod and clear his throat. "R-right. Look, I heard what you did, and it warms my heart, truly. I'm merely trying to congratulate you on dropping the fierce facade long enough to comfort someone in their time of need."

"Who said it was a facade?" Panne asked, a smirk on her face and a hand moving towards her beaststone. "Regardless, it was the right thing to do. I do not need praise from a sleazy man like you."

The man made a noise that sounded like the kind of dying sound some of her past prey would have made. "You wound me, my dear. What, did you think I would try to take advantage of that girl's tragedy?"

"That is exactly what I'm saying," Panne said, crossing her arms. "Now may I retire to my tent?"

"Not when you're so convinced I would stoop to those lengths!" Virion said quickly. "Look, I...I was going to do the same thing you did, but it's for the best that you did it. We've experienced similar tragedies, but it does mean more coming from you than it would a womanizer than me..."

"Have you...?" Panne asked, doubtful that a man with such a cheery disposition could possibly have had a brush with loss.

"I was the duke of Rosanne, of Valm!" Virion said, making a grand hand motion. "...Was, being the key word. You see, I've had to watch my realm burn to the ground. I too, have been helpless at the slaughter of my people." He allowed a moment for this news to sink in, watching Panne's expression go through many different changes. "We have more in common than you may think, you know."

The words were almost physically painful to hear, but she couldn't argue against them. At least, not very well. When both members of the conversation had seen death and war rage around them, without the ability to do anything, it was sound logic. Finally, Panne thought of something to say, arguing, "well, you weren't as young as I was."

Virion shrugged. "Yeah, but one could argue that watching your people die around you as a powerless adult would hurt just as much as watching that as a child. Knowing you could have done something, saved someone, but didn't..."

Whatever Virion said next was drowned out by terrible, bloody flashbacks. Nothing was real anymore except the rain splashing on her head. Everything else was a blur, the current moment mixing with the day the Warren was lost. With a scream, Panne fell to her knees, hands clutching her ears tight. Virion had taken a step back and asked if she was alright, but it was lost on her. When the flashbacks had finally subsided, she looked up to see his worried face. "S-sorry," she mumbled. "Flashbacks."

Virion nodded, understanding in his eyes. Something about that look clicked within Panne, and it caused her mind to race. This was someone who truly understood the trauma and the side effects of it, and now he was reaching out to her to show her that. Knowing that someone shared her struggles like this was a totally new feeling, and she was completely lost on how to handle it.

So, naturally, she handled it in the worst way possible.

She grabbed his wrist and pulled him into her tent with her, quickly pushing him onto the ground and straddling him. "Tell me. Do you try to woo women to push the flashbacks out of your mind? Is romance a big enough distraction?"

The dumbstruck Virion struggled to form a response. "Wh-no, I—"

"Enough talk."

"I couldn't possibly take advantage of a woman in such a turbulent state of emotions," he insisted, trying to push her off of him to no avail.

Panne's explanation was strangely calm for someone looking to get frisky. "We are equals in this regard, I see no advantage being taken. Please help me push the memories away."

Virion, meanwhile, was unusually frantic for a man who seemed to pursue getting frisky often. "I'd love to, b-but surely this isn't the best way."

"Gods damn it Virion, A woman is trying to seduce you for once, so let it happen."

This was an argument Virion couldn't have countered, partially because Panne had slammed their lips together. This kind of woman's touch was too much for Virion to resist any longer, and he succumbed to temptation, thankful that the only Shepherd with ears good enough to hear what happened next in that tent was, in fact, the other one it was happening to.

The next morning found two naked bodies curled up close to each other, sharing warmth in the cold, post-storm morning. They were startled awake by someone calling into the tent. "Panne? Have you seen Virion? He's not in his tent."

Panne was quick to warn the intruder not to come in before lying about having seen him. Virion stirred awake shortly after, sighing as he recounted the events of the previous night. "We...really did that, didn't we?"

Panne nodded, the faintest hint of a blush creeping across her face. "I had not planned on it getting as far as it did, honestly. But it certainly did what I had wanted it to."

"Well, I'm glad I could help," Virion said, hesitant to sound too proud. "Just, give a man a warning next time, yeah?"

Panne scoffed. "Don't pretend as if there will be a next time. Now get out."

"E-er, right..."

After making sure he was decent, she sent him off with, "and you better not tell anyone about this."

* * *

Not long after the illicit encounter in the tent, the Shepherds brought justice to the wicked man who was responsible for Emmeryn's death. Following that was a two year period that was peaceful for Ylisse, but couldn't be less so for Panne and Virion.

The constant stress of traveling and fighting was relieved and she had time to herself, but she couldn't tell if that were good or bad. The time alone with her thoughts only gave way to more terrible flashbacks and bad memories coming back to the surface, and now that her main outlet was gone, she was forced to take the other option.

Surely once more couldn't hurt, right? Using this mindset, she was quick to track down Virion on his time off, lucky that he stayed in town to attend the rumored royal wedding that would be taking place in the coming days. During his time off, he had found alcohol, which the Shepherds had previously been staying away from in case of random battles breaking out, so he was easier to convince with that in his system. The guilt from randomly sleeping with a relative stranger ate at Panne, but it wasn't as bad as the trauma that she had pushed away by doing so.

After the royal wedding took place and the capital city settled, life returned to the relative normalcy it had before that night Emmeryn had been attacked. In the midst of the new found peace, it didn't take very long at all for Panne to realize something was wrong. Random bouts of dizzyness and nausea that were uncharacteristic for her species gave way to losing sleep over getting sick to her stomach. After that came the, to her, unmistakable signs of a very big mistake.

The first and only person she approached with this was the offending party, of course. Fortunately (or not), Virion was still as easy to track down as ever, and the clearly tipsy nobleman was startled nearly sober by Panne storming in and jabbing a finger into his chest. "I would ask if you're here to, er, lay again, but the look in your eyes is..."

"Murderous," Panne suggested. "Or perhaps disgusted? I could go on."

"No need," Virion assured her. "The sour expression adorning your otherwise lovely face tells me loud and clear that I have done something wrong. But...what is it I've done?" Panne balled her hands into fists, desperately wanting to punch his lights out, but her intent must have been easy to read, because Virion put his hands up defensively. "L-look, you can't fault me for not knowing what I did wrong. Last time we spoke, we parted on somewhat alright terms, so I have no clue what you're so angry about."

After a tense silence, Panne sighed. "Right. I apologize."

Virion resisted the urge to snark and instead opted to say, "now what is it? Perhaps we can talk this out. You know, like adults."

Panne took a deep breath and opened her mouth to speak, but instead nodded in his direction. "You should sit down before I go on."

Virion scoffed, puffing his chest out proudly. "There's nothing you could tell me that would cause me to faint."

Panne raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. "Truly?"

"Truly."

Despite the unfortunate circumstances, Panne almost took glee in delivering the news in the most deadpan voice she could say it in. The color drained from his face in the blink of an eye, and his body hit the ground almost as fast. If she were better off, Panne would have left him there and never spoken to him again, and the temptation to do that was there. Unfortunately, she hardly had enough money to her name to support herself, so she softly kicked at Virion until he stirred again. "Wake up," she said curtly.

Ever the dramatic one, Virion had Panne grab him a wet washcloth to hold to his head before he would get up properly. When he was propped up against the wall, cloth to his forehead, he said, "you're...not joking, are you?"

"I have never told a joke in my life," Panne responded.

With a sigh, Virion drummed his fingers on the ground with his free hand. "That's unfortunate."

"You're telling me," Panne scoffed. "Now how are you going to fix this?"

Virion bit his lip, humming in thought. "Alright, we should take this one step at a time. First order of business, we should consider getting married."

"Absolutely not," she snapped.

Virion put his hands up defensively. "Consider this, it would be bad form for an unmarried noble like myself to sire a child outside of wed—"

Panne stomped her foot, nearly crushing Virion's fingers. "This isn't about you!"

Virion continued, unfettered by Panne's protests. "Call me a hopeless romantic because of Chrom's recent wedding, but it would only be proper for me—"

Interrupting him again, Panne yelled, "there are more important things to be worrying about than your damn public image, you dumbass!" Dumbfounded, Virion put a hand over his chest and looked at Panne with wide eyes. "You caused this, and you are going to help me through it. I refuse to partake in your idiotic human customs to ensure that I get the help I deserve."

Neither person spoke for a moment, and Virion took the tense lull in conversation to get to his feet. He dusted himself off and turned to face Panne with a stony face. "I see. You wouldn't want to devote your life to someone with whom your only interactions have been...illicit in nature. Very well! I will help you in whatever way you desire, and perhaps someday, when the child is alive and healthy, you will deem me worthy of your love and devotion."

"Don't get your hopes up," Panne snapped.

"Right right, but we should probably get to know each other at least a bit," Virion insisted.

Panne rolled her eyes. "That is not out of the question, of course, but do not expect me to enjoy your presence."

"Fair enough," Virion said. "Now where shall we start?"

Panne's shoulders slumped. "I...don't know."

That day set into motion a bizarre chain of events that both people involved swore to keep a secret from everybody possible. They weren't a couple by any means, but Panne started taking her payment in the form of moving in with Virion in a larger house somewhere else in the capital city of Ylisse. He wasn't too terribly comfortable with the arrangements, but the conversation they had when they first moved in helped soothe his fears a bit. "I find it odd that you refused to marry me, but insist on moving in with me."

Panne rolled her eyes. "Us being under the same roof means nothing. We will be in separate rooms, and with any luck, I won't be seeing you until I need you."

Virion sighed in relief. "Whew, here I thought you would force me to share a bed with you regularly."

Unimpressed, Panne shook her head. "Not even in your wildest dreams."

Virion was quick to point out, "stranger things have happened between us." The glare he was shot ended that conversation right away and marked the last time the two saw each other for days.

The next time the reluctant housemates saw each other was when Panne started succumbing to the mood swings. The sounds of someone frantically running around the house weren't what woke Virion, but once the front door opened, he rushed to see what was causing it. The sight he found was Panne in the doorway, eyes wide and a bag on her back. "Where are you going?"

"I've decided I need to leave," she said quickly. "I can't stay here and raise a child in such...unfortunate circumstances. I will do this on my own."

Virion raised an eyebrow. "Where will you do this?" Without responding, Panne slammed the door and, presumably, stormed off. Virion shook his head and made his way into the kitchen. "Perhaps it's for the best that I don't have to deal with this." After considering the situation over a nice, quiet cup of tea, he sighed deeply. He had come to the realization that this rash decision stemmed from some sort of weird mood swing, and that a nobleman like himself should go through with his lofty promises. "I should go find her."

It took all of ten minutes to find Panne hastily buying fruit at a stand in the bazaar. In an attempt to be as reasonable and reassuring as possible, he lightly tapped her shoulder and asked her nicely to go back to the house with him. She responded by elbowing him in the gut and stashing the fruit in her bag. "I refuse to go anywhere with you. I don't need you."

The temptation to let her go was strong, but patience and decency won out. "And how exactly do you plan on taking care of yourself and a child without a coin to your name, hm?"

Panne hesitated, but said, "the Taguel have survived in the wild for generations."

Virion rolled his eyes. "But you're a Taguel who has experienced the leisure of civilized living."

"I'll go back," she said simply.

"You do realize this will mean no more bathing, right?" He paused to let the threat sink in. "And no more decently cooked meals, unless you'd like to give your position away to possible threats. And further more, if something happened to you, what will become of the child?"

Every muscle in Panne's body tensed, her eyes even wider. "Dear gods, you're right."

Virion nodded sagely, having accidentally stumbled into a good point. "See, my dear, you are the last of your kind. Inside you, you carry the last hope of your race. If something were to happen to you, how would your child cope with being the last Taguel?"

Panne shifted her weight and tried to sound as indignant as possible. "I managed just fine."

"Did you really?" He felt bad for spitting the words the way he did when he saw the look in her eyes change from panicked and rushed to on the verge of tears, but he continued. "I promised to help you through this, and Virion does not make promises he doesn't intend to keep. And if you stay with me, I promise that if something happens to you, I will keep the Taguel alive and well through your child." When she couldn't form a response, he reached for her hand. "But you have to promise not to do this."

Instead of reaching for him like he had expected her to, Panne walked by him, making her way back to the house. "Fine. But only because you insist."

Virion smiled, shaking his head. This was going to be a long pregnancy.

* * *

The rest of her mood swings never got quite as bad as trying to leave home, but there were some pretty rough patches. Mere days after the first incident, Panne had to be talked down from a screaming fit that broke a good number things. Once she was calmed, they sat across from each other at the table, talking over some tea. "Sorry about the nightstand," Panne said. After being reassured it was alright, she added, "and the front door."

Virion laughed, raising his hand to stop her. "It's quite alright. Everything you broke is easily replaceable. Just try not to get so worked up in the future."

Panne raised an eyebrow at him, taking a sip of tea before asking, "why do you say that?"

"Stress during pregnancy tends to have negative effects on the child," Virion said knowingly.

"How do you know this?" Panne asked, concern in her voice.

After laughing his snooty laugh, Virion explained, "I've taken the liberty of picking up a couple of books about pregnancy and all the pitfalls thereof. I've been discreet, of course, but I am now fully prepared to do my duty."

Panne's hand tightened around her cup. "Why are you so devoted to helping me like this? All I truly need from you is the financial support."

"Ah, but you fail to realize one thing," Virion said. "I am this child's father, so I feel a certain responsibility to not only support the child, but do my best to ensure its well-being after it is born."

Unsure of how to feel, Panne cleared her throat. "I didn't ask for this."

"I understand that," Virion assured her. "However, a true gentleman doesn't need to be asked to go above and beyond."

Something about that explanation bugged Panne, though. "Alright, what's the catch, then?"

After taking a sip, he shook his head earnestly. "None at all. After some reflection, I came to the conclusion that I should contribute more to the life I created than by merely supporting you financially. If there is anything you need, be it questions to be answered or even..." He hesitated, clearly not wanting to give the next offer. Finally, he finished with, "yes, even foot rubs, I will provide it."

Seeing him squirm was amusing to Panne, but she decided to take full advantage of the situation. "You know, now that you mention it, my feet are a bit sore. You should get them." She smiled, but the way she lifted her feet off the ground told Virion she was being completely serious. As he sighed and got on the floor to do his work, she reflected on his willingness to go the extra mile. His heart rate had been normal during the conversation, which was solid evidence that he had meant every word of it. Even if she still didn't believe him after that, the fact that he was on his knees at her feet would prove it just fine.

Her feelings at the moment were hard to pin down. She had felt many things speaking to Virion: anger, hatred, disbelief, exhaustion, and those one or two moments of vulnerability to name a few, but this was a new one. She was mostly confused, with a dash of something else she couldn't quite pin down.

As she watched him labor at her feet, her hand found itself resting on her stomach, which would become a habit over the course of her pregnancy.

As time wore on, Panne started suffering from the physical changes of said pregnancy, which meant her hand was resting on a bigger and bigger stomach. After a point, the extra insecurities that came with the growth lead to her locking herself up in the house, refusing to go outside except when the dark of night could hide her shame. That made sense of course, because if a fellow Shepherd somehow saw her out and about, they would start asking questions about the woman that they thought was unattached to anybody being with child. It wasn't until she got _really_ noticeable that things started getting ridiculous.

Until then, Panne had slowly started letting her walls down around Virion, allowing him to get closer with her (both mentally and physically) in ways that would have been unthinkable before. That was why it struck Virion odd that one day he had come home to find Panne locked in her room, refusing to come out for any reason, no matter how many offers for massages he made. He had whipped up dinner, confident that that would bring her out of hiding, but he wasn't expecting exactly how she would emerge.

"Panne," he called to the locked door. "Come on out now, I've made us a spectacular dinner, if I do say so myself."

The response on the other side of the door was muffled, but he knew what it was. He made his way back to the kitchen to put their plates together and started listening for the door opening. When the sound came, it also came with a strange sound of something rubbing together and frustrated grunts. He raised an eyebrow, distracted from putting food together. Was Panne leaving the room sideways to be overdramatic and getting herself stuck? Was she attempting to move her stuff out of the house again? If so, couldn't she at least have the decency to wait until supper was over? When the noise stopped, he jumped at the incredibly heavy footfalls that were now roaming the house. He grabbed a knife and whirled around, prepared to deal with an intruder, but what he saw made him nearly drop the knife in surprise. "What...are you doing?"

"Coming to eat dinner, why?" The strange distortion of Panne's voice echoed throughout the house as she spoke.

"Do you mind eating in your human form, dear?" He asked, gesturing at the mass of fur and glowing red eyes taking up most of the living room.

If she had the room to sit up straight, she would have done just that and crossed her arms for added effect, but she instead remained on all fours and tilted her head. "Why should I? And don't call me that."

"I can only imagine how cramped we would get if you insisted on eating in a form that takes up half the house," Virion explained, trying to keep calm with the knowledge that she could unleash her claws on him at the slightest wrong choice of words.

"I will be fine," she stubbornly insisted. "Now give me my food so I can go back into my room."

Virion rolled his eyes. "And how do you plan on taking your food back to your room?"

A moment paused, and if Panne's rabbit face could show any emotion, it would have shifted to embarrassment. "I'll eat in here," she finally said.

Virion shrugged and moved to the table, setting the two plates of food down before taking a seat himself. "This is odd," he said casually. "How long have we been living together that you haven't done this? I can't imagine you like to be in this form casually."

"Don't question me," Panne snarled. "I don't need to explain myself to you."

Virion held his hands up innocently. "Fine, fine. Feel free to talk about it later if you wish, though." Before proceeding to eat, Panne mumbled an obscenity under her breath, forgetting that her voice was amplified in this form anyway. The response she got was a stern headshake. "Such crass language coming from a mother-to-be," he scolded. "I do hope you don't plan to teach your child that."

"What I plan to teach my child will be none of your business." Thanks to her larger than normal snout, Panne's dinner was now almost entirely gone.

Virion held up two fingers, his free hand poking at his food with a utensil. "Two things. First of all, you probably shouldn't speak about those things in that form, lest someone overhear you and let your secret out." Panne gasped, and in a flash of brilliant purple light, the monster in the room had been replaced by... well... "Panne, why aren't you wearing any clothes?"

"I didn't feel like putting my armor on to transform," she explained, starting to eat what was left of her dinner as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

Virion shook his head, eyes going directly to the likely reason she had transformed in the first place. Seeing her hand resting on her bulging stomach stirred something in his heart, but he wasn't sure if it was caused by that or the lack of clothes on the woman doing it. "A-anyway," he continued, shaking his head. "My second point is that I can probably have a say in what we teach the child, since it is also mine."

"Still under the delusion that you will help raise it, I see." Panne really needed to work on not talking with her mouth full. "I appreciate the hospitality, but you will not be raising the kid any further than providing a roof over its head."

Virion sighed, knowing that pushing the subject today was a fruitless endeavor. "Fine, fine."

Luckily for him, he wouldn't have to struggle to avert his eyes for much longer, because she only had a little bit of dinner left to finish. Once she was done, she crossed her arms and seemed to pout. "I transformed so you would not have to see me so vulnerable, but now you've forced me to show you myself at the most vulnerable I can be. How humiliating."

"Why do you care how you look in front of me?" Virion asked. "You and I both know you don't care enough about what I think of anything, much less you." He didn't get any response, Panne opting instead to glare at nothing in particular. After swallowing a bite, Virion decided to continue speaking. "If it's any consolation, I don't think it's even possible for you to be vulnerable. You're the fiercest woman I believe I've ever met. I don't think I'll live to see the day you show true vulnerability."

Panne chuckled, taking a stand. "You're right. That does make me feel a bit better." She turned and started walking back to her room, unaware of Virion's struggles to look anywhere but at her. "And thanks for the food," was the last thing she said before disappearing into her room once more.

That was the last he saw of her that night, but he wasn't done interacting with her. Long after he had decided to go to bed, he was stirred by the door slowly creaking open. His muscles tensed, and he gripped the knife he hid under his pillow in case he was ever found by those who had destroyed his home. He listened to the footfalls get closer, but right before he would have attacked, he heard the oh-so-familiar sigh of the woman he lived with. Being sure to disturb him as little as possible, she climbed into bed and wrapped her arms around him, clinging to his back. "What...?" He asked, feigning having just been woken up.

"Don't get used to this," she said quickly. "Dreams weren't kind to me."

Virion nodded sluggishly. "Understood." As Panne pressed closer to him, he felt a distantly familiar sensation against his back. "Did you never put clothes on?"

If he had the light to see it and the energy to look, he would have seen a quickly flushing face. "Shut up."

With a smile, Virion fell back asleep. Neither person in that bed would admit it, but that night, they both relished the warmth of another human body, and that gave them both one of the best nights of sleep in their lives.

* * *

 **This entire fic is a bit of a late birthday present to my dearest girlfriend, who loves Panne and babyfic oh so very much. That said, this is only the beginning, and boy do we have a long way to go.**


	2. The Third Event

**It's time for chapter 2 of this joyous romp through babyfic. Trust me, even if you think you're ready for this chapter, you're not. c:**

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Luckily, the roaming around the house naked fiasco had ended relatively quickly, but Panne still insisted on being in her beast form if she had to leave the house, which lead to a lot of confusion and only a little bit of citizen panic.

It was obvious that her insistence was so nobody could see her bulging belly, but the fact that she insisted on doing it in the house was starting to grate on Virion's nerves. When he confronted her about it sternly, she ended up putting him through a table, so he thought it was time for a more gentle approach.

Hopefully this one wouldn't end in bloodshed again.

Instead of calling her out to dinner, he brought two plates into her room and roused her from a nap by sitting at the end of her bed. "I made food," he offered.

"Why did you bring it to me?" Panne asked.

"I didn't want to make you feel you had to transform," Virion explained. "I thought you would be more comfortable if we ate in here." Panne was confused, but wouldn't argue against his logic. When their food was almost finished, Virion cleared his throat. He tripped over his words as he spoke, inwardly debating how flowery his language should get. "I must say, you look...er, you look nice."

Panne raised an eyebrow. "Explain."

Who was Virion to leave her hanging? "Right, er, my retainer trained in being a healer, and as such, I have met many a pregnant woman in need of her assistance. That said, I don't recall a single one looking as radiant despite their condition as you do. Your fiery personality hasn't been extinguished one bit, and you don't look at all worse for wear."

Taken aback by the compliment, Panne couldn't fight the smile creeping onto her face. "Thanks."

It was as curt as she could manage, but he could feel the genuine emotion beneath it. He sighed and prepared himself for his next move. He knew it could very well end in his ass getting thrown through another piece of furniture, but despite the danger, he reached out with his hand timidly. When she didn't actively stop him, he gingerly placed it on her stomach. She gasped and glared daggers at him, but otherwise didn't move. Their faces heated up as they stared at each other, completely motionless. The room was so quiet, Virion almost thought he could hear Panne's heartbeat without the help of special ears. Finally, she took a deep breath and asked, "what are you doing?"

Virion cleared his throat and started to move his hand from her stomach, but something stopped him in his tracks. When it happened, his eyes widened and Panne shifted uncomfortably. "D-did...?"

"Please stop touching me," Panne said quickly.

He quickly removed his hand and nodded. "Right. Sorry. I just wanted to let you know that you are no less beautiful or strong than you were."

Panne rolled her eyes. "I didn't need to be told that. I know full well." After a moment, she arched an eyebrow and asked, "are...are you crying?"

Virion was shocked to realize that a single tear had started rolling down his cheek. "Oh, of course not!" He dismissed Panne's question with a nervous chuckle. "I'll be leaving you alone now." He rushed to leave the room, and halfway into his own, he was stopped by her voice calling after him somewhat desperately. After turning around, he stepped into her room again to see her with wide eyes.

She cleared her throat when he came into view again. "You...you forgot the plates."

"Ah, of course," Virion nodded. He quickly grabbed the dishes and ran back out, apologizing the whole time. While he took care of those, he couldn't stop thinking about what he had felt. His hand still tingled from the unexpected sensation, and it made everything all the more real to him.

He was going to be a father.

When she was alone again, Panne slumped back on her bed, tears forming in her eyes. She, of course, had felt what Virion had, but that was the first time that had happened, and the reality of the situation was finally dawning on her with certainty.

This was actually happening. There was life inside her, and now it was moving.

A few nights later, she slipped into Virion's room late at night again, this time wearing clothes, and climbed into bed with him. He was slightly more awake this time, judging from him merely moving aside instead of softly gasping. She merely said, "don't get used to this," and fell asleep almost immediately. This time, her lack of sleep had been due to the conflicting feelings and terrible thoughts plaguing her mind. How was she supposed to raise a child all by herself? Money wasn't even the least of her concerns, so even if that was taken care of, there were _so_ many other roadblocks and obstacles to tackle that the sheer weight of it put her on edge just to _think_ about. For some reason, though, Virion's presence next to her in bed soothed those fears. It was stupid, because his pompous presence wasn't helping anything, and he couldn't help raise a child, but she couldn't complain about finally getting some sleep.

The next night, those fears returned in full force, so she didn't even hesitate in joining Virion in bed once more, again warning him not to get too comfy.

The night after that, it happened again, and she gave the warning one more time.

After a straight week of those fears cropping up, she stopped bothering to give him the warning, or even trying to sleep in her room. After all the talk about him not getting used to it, she herself had grown to rely on his presence to soothe her fears.

However, what went away at night came back with a vengeance during the day, and Panne found herself growing anxious and stressed out when left alone for even a moment. After several days of deflecting questions and insisting everything was alright, she finally relented, and did something she didn't think Virion would ever get her to do. She talked it out.

One night, she planned to bring it up over dinner, but nerves got the better of her, and every time she'd try to speak, the words wouldn't come. After the longest dinner of her life, Virion excused himself to clean the dishes and she remained motionless. When he came back and saw that she hadn't moved, he took a seat again and looked at her curiously. "Is something the matter?"

Every instinct Panne had told her to say no, absolutely nothing was wrong, and command him to stop bothering her, but common sense won out, sort of. She banged her fist on the table, nearly putting a hole through it and causing Virion to jump. "Yes! Yes, something is very wrong."

"Oh gods, what's happening? Is the child coming?" The worry in his voice and his increased heart rate were genuine.

Panne shook her head. "No, not quite. I need to talk to you, though." Virion nodded sagely, silently encouraging her to continue. "You see, I..." After trying to word it several different ways and failing, she let out an uncharacteristic sob. "I can't do this."

Sensing her struggle, Virion said, "now now, not everyone can be as delicate with words as I. Take your time. I'm listening."

Those final two words helped the situation immensely. When she spoke, the words came a lot easier without the pressure of wording it in a way that would convey the message. "Virion, I have been thinking about this a lot lately, and I realized...I don't just need your money, or your house. I need your help." She paused to wait for a response, but when none came, she continued, keeping her gaze fixed on the wood of the table. "I'm a warrior. I was not raised nor taught to be a mother. My family died, so I have no examples to go off of. I...I cannot raise a child. Not on my own."

Virion nodded again. He waited for Panne to have anything else to say, but when she looked at him expectantly, he got the message. "Well then, it seems that it's a good thing that I offered to help raise it then, hm?"

Panne's eyes widened. "You meant that? I thought you merely said that to cover your ass."

Virion shook his head with a smile. "My dear, Virion never makes a promise he doesn't intend to keep. When that child is born, I will do everything in my power to help you raise it to the best of our abilities."

Feeling tears come to her eyes, Panne finally looked up and made eye contact. "Thank you," she said. He nodded and assured her it was no problem, and her face suddenly fell again. "But this doesn't mean anything. We still aren't in any sort of relationship."

Virion laughed. "Of course, I understand. It is possible to raise a child without being in a relationship, after all."

"Good," Panne spat. "Because even if it wasn't, I still would not get with you." After Virion repeated his assurance that he understood, the two parted ways until the time to sleep came. While she sat alone in what could barely even be called her room at this point, Panne took a moment to think about the exchange. Learning that his promises were all genuine lifted an immense weight from her shoulders. For the first time since the kicks, she felt that maybe this wasn't a hopeless endeavor after all. In fact, she was eager to meet her child for the first time since her discovery.

But how was Virion so insistent on helping her despite her constant yelling at him? After so long of being dismissed and treated the way he was, he was unflinching in his generosity. Nobody else would have put up her that long. Why was that? It was a mystery that she didn't really care to solve, but it ate at her for whatever reason. Whatever the answer was, her biggest worries were pushed away, so she could go back to sleeping by herself.

Except she didn't really want to.

Several days later, Panne slept in, completely undisturbed by Virion getting out of bed and continuing to sleep well into the day. When she finally woke up, Virion was leaning against the doorframe. "I see you've decided to join the living!" Panne rolled her eyes and moved to get out of bed, causing him to hold his hands up quickly. "Hey, may I make you breakfast in bed?"

"Er, no," Panne said, sitting up. "I have spent entirely too much time in bed already today, so why would I want to waste more time here?"

"Because I have a surprise for you that isn't quite ready yet," Virion explained. "But if you wait here just a bit longer, I can show it to you in its completed state." She was wary, but moving to get up pained her, so she reluctantly remained in bed for the next hour or so while Virion shuffled around the house frantically. Finally, he came back into the room and helped her to her feet, excited to show her whatever he had been working so hard on. "I have spared no expense in what I'm about to show you, and I do hope you like it."

He took them to the third, as of yet unused room in the house, and slowly opened the door. The inside was a completely different room than it was when they had moved into the house. The walls were painted bright colors, there were stuffed animals piled up in one corner and a bunch of other various baby toys strewn about. In the middle sat a crib, complete with a mobile depicting various wildlife hanging above it. "Oh my gods," Panne said, unable to form any other words.

"It is wonderful, no?" He said, gesturing around the room. "I dare say our own prince did not get to experience such a fantastic nursery. You no doubt have already noticed, but I also took the liberty of bringing in a cot for those long nights with a fussy baby." He motioned to the corner and the small bed that sat there, true to his word.

"How long have you been working at this?" Panne asked. "These walls are definitely not newly painted."

Virion nodded confirmation. "I started the paint job the first opportunity I had, and I've been working on it on and off for...a couple months now? I finally finished it about a week ago, and started secretly buying all these other supplies in the days since. I just received the crib today, so I spent the day putting that together and putting the finishing touches on the room."

Something he had said had stuck with Panne throughout the rest of his sentence. "You...you've been doing this for that long? Even while I hated you and yelled at you and..."

"Say no more," he said quickly. "I added just a bit more at every moment of free time I had, even if you were displeased with me at the time."

One again, she asked herself why he was so willing to help while receiving nothing but disgust and anger, but the thought was quickly swatted away. What mattered right then was the fact that he did what he did, and the how and why could come later. "I love it," she said, wincing as if the words hurt to say. "Thank you."

"It truly was no problem at all," he assured her.

Panne shook her head. "No. I have been nothing but a burden on you, and I apologize for yelling at you as much as I did. I don't deserve all the help you have been giving me."

"That is quite enough of that." Her face fell and she tried to act indignant, but he cut her off by saying, "this is surely a trying time in your life, and if you had no other form of stress relief, the only one who would suffer from it is the baby, so I'm more than okay with taking the force of your anger if it means a healthy offspring." As an aside, he added, "though some of those words did sting a bit..."

Panne couldn't help but chuckle at the way his voice cracked under those words. "Thanks again. For everything," she said.

Over the course of her life, two major events had caused Panne's entire world to crumble around her. The first, most obvious one, was the eradication of her people and their way of life. That left her completely alone with feelings of anger, trauma, confusion and pain. Why would anybody do that? It wasn't fair. If she could give her own life to ensure the survival of her people, she would have in a second.

The second event was the realization that she was pregnant. Though it wasn't quite as traumatic, it still rocked her to her core. How could _she_ do that? The fear, shame and embarrassment weren't easily forgotten. After those passed, the feeling of helplessness had settled around her, only being chased away by Virion and his willingness to help out.

She had no idea that a third such event was patiently waiting in the wings, ready to tear her life to shreds once more.

Near the end of her pregnancy, she had completely let her feelings of malice against Virion go, leading to a much more pleasant life at the house that was finally becoming home. One day, Virion brought this up to her in the form of a question: "Panne, what are we?" Such a strangely forward question was strange, so when asked for elaboration, he said, "what is our relationship? I know we're not romantically involved to any capacity, but surely this past month or so has helped you warm up to me a little bit?"

"I'm glad you have no delusions about the romance aspect," she answered. "Anyway, I have been thinking about that as well."

"And what conclusion have you arrived to?" Virion leaned forward in his chair, causing Panne to laugh.

"I would consider you my friend. Is that a suitable answer?"

Virion breathed a sigh and gave her a smile. "Yeah, that will do."

Later that day, Panne noticed him looking over an official looking paper with a concerned expression. "What is that?"

He looked up as if he weren't expecting to see her. "Oh, it's merely a missive from my home country...er, continent, I suppose. My former retainer has taken it on herself to send me status reports about the political unrest and her progress in putting what pieces remain of my realm back together."

"I see," Panne said. "Any good news?"

Virion shook his head. "Not necessarily. It still is not safe to go back, and the so-called conqueror has made that abundantly clear."

Panne had lost interest in the conversation. "Unfortunate," she said, turning to go back to her own business.

When he was alone, Virion put the letter down and sighed. "Sorry Cherche. I would love to help, but my services are required elsewhere."

Days later, everything the past several months had been building up to started to fall into place. It all started when the immense pain racking Panne's body caused her to fall herself. Having prepared himself extensively for this very moment, Virion did his best to make Panne feel comfortable...right before darting out of the house, leaving her very confused and in a lot of pain. Several moments of panic and nearly unbearable pain later, Virion returned with a guest. "What is _she_ doing here?" Panne demanded.

"I decided I cannot deliver a baby myself, no matter how much I wanted to help," Virion explained. "So I found the nearest healer to help."

The blonde woman pursed her lips at Panne's predicament. "I must say, I did not picture you being the kind of woman to bear children," she said calmly. "And am I right to assume Virion is the father? That's even more unexpected. ...And a little sickening, if I'm honest."

"Shut up and help me!" Panne screamed as another wave of pain slammed into her. The obnoxious woman sighed and rolled up her sleeves, taking a brief moment to complain about not being prepared to deliver a child today before getting right to it. Those infuriating ringlets in her painfully bright hair were the last sight Panne wanted to see in between her legs, but once the magic staff was brought out and the pain subsided a bit, she mentally thanked Virion for having the foresight to bring a healer. She still would rather that healer be the kinder one, though.

Virion did everything he could to help, which meant switching between being Panne's hand to put in a vicegrip and helping Maribelle fetch whatever it was she needed for this job. Unfortunately, the pain and agony lasted well into the night, and much of the following morning. At last, the physical pain finally subsided when Maribelle scurried out of the room to clean the quiet, newborn child, leaving an exhausted mother and almost gleeful father. "On the bright side, at least it isn't crying," Virion said, hand sore from Panne's iron grip.

Panne wanted to agree, but she couldn't help but feel a pit in her stomach. Something seemed wrong with the way that Maribelle was so quick to make herself scarce. She couldn't shake the terrible feeling that the physical anguish would be replaced with emotional turmoil.

That feeling did not go away when Maribelle came back with an apologetic face and a mass of towels cradled in her arms. "What is it?" Panne demanded, starting to grow frantic. "Where is my baby?"

After heaving a sigh, Maribelle showed the others the bundle in her arms. The child's face was calm and peaceful, but cold and lifeless. "I...don't know what happened," Maribelle said quietly. As she spoke, Virion's face fell from a warm smile to a pale look of dread. "I did everything I could, but he just...doesn't have a pulse."

"You have magic, do something!" Panne yelled, the only thing stopping her from getting in Maribelle's face being the pain still tormenting her body.

"I can heal wounds," Maribelle corrected. "Whatever went wrong here is...is something I can't fix." She moved across the room, gingerly setting the child down in Panne's arms. The last thing she said before leaving the house was a small, "I'm sorry."

There was no denying it. No amount of yelling, screaming, or physical violence would change what had just happened, so she didn't attempt it. Until the pain passed, she sat there, staring at the ever unmoving face that should have been looking back at her. Virion too knew nothing could possibly make the impact lesser, so he stood as still as a statue, and even quieter. As she stared silently, Panne could feel her world falling apart around her. There was no point in fighting tears, so she let them flow freely. This third horrendous event was a terrible mix of some of the emotions from its predecessors. There was fear, trauma, confusion, pain, and shame. Each and every emotion felt like a ton of bricks piled onto her chest, and no amount of heaving sobs could lift that weight. She held her child close, touched its furry little forehead to hers, and did the only thing she could think to do.

She cried until there were no more tears to be shed.

It lasted hours, and she wasn't sure if she ever cried herself to sleep or not. At long last, when her eyes had been exhausted, she stood up and said, "I'm going to bury him," curtly.

Outside, she withstood another bout of crying, and even with the elements around her, she had no idea how much time passed.

When the child was laid to rest and the dirt was put back in its place, she came back inside to see that Virion was gone.

That was fine. She understood that he needed time to be alone as well. He was just as invested, if not more so, in the child who never got to live, so it was only fair that he have some time alone as well. Perhaps they could cry together when he came back.

But he didn't come back that night. It was a sleepless, tearful night, and each second was longer than the previous one.

The next morning, Virion had still not come home. His absence dragged on, and after a week had passed, the reality that he wasn't coming had dawned on Panne. How could he just leave like that? He didn't even bother to say goodbye! The fact that he was so excited to raise a child, but ducked out the moment that was revealed to not be happening only told Panne that he didn't care about her, only the mistake she made with him.

This revelation was followed immediately by trashing most of the house she could get her hands on. It was the only outlet for her anger, so she destroyed whatever was unfortunate enough to get in her way. Her rampage worked through the house, and finally, she reached the still-unused nursery. When she went inside, she froze in her tracks. The sight of the crib collecting dust in the center of the room caused all of her anger to melt away the instant she saw it. The overwhelming, soul-crushing sadness that replaced it brought her to her knees and made her forget all ill intent she had toward this room.

After all the effort Virion put into this room, why did he leave?

No answer came, but what did come was an act of kindness that Panne treasured. About a week after her rampage, she heard a loud knocking on the house's front door. She had no intention of answering it, of course, so she listened to the noise without moving to do something about it.

Moments later, the knocks sounded again. She figured that when this got no answer, whoever was on the other side would figure that nobody was home and leave. Just when it seemed that was the case, the knocks came again, accompanied by some sort of high-pitched sound. There was no use lying to herself, she could hear exactly what that high-pitched sound was, but why would that person be visiting her? Either way, the voice had said that they knew Panne was home, so she had no choice but to slowly open the door for her visitor, only cracking it enough to peek through. "What do you want," she asked flatly.

The blonde pigtails bouncing around a determined expression would have been enough to make Panne laugh if she weren't in the middle of an emotional crisis. "Panne, Maribelle told me everything, and I want to help."

Panne heaved an exhausted sigh and slumped her shoulders. "That insufferable woman cannot keep her mouth shut, can she? How long until the entirety of Ylisse knows what happened to me?"

Lissa shook her head, again causing her pigtails to whip around hilariously. "No no. We promised each other that we would never tell a soul. Your secret is safe with us, I swear." A skeptical Panne responded by simply slamming the door shut, causing her visitor to bark an indignant, "hey!" A few seconds of frantic knocking later, Panne swung the door open with an annoyed look (and aching ears.) "Look, Panne, I...I want to help."

"There is no way for you to help," Panne told her.

"Please just let me in so I can explain myself," Lissa pleaded. Reluctantly, Panne let the princess in, and moments later found them sitting at the (somehow) intact dining room table with cups of tea in front of them. "Do you remember what you did the night after Emmeryn died?" Of course she did, so Lissa continued, "you see, it meant so much to me that you came to try and comfort me, so I decided it would only be fair if I returned the favor."

"Really?" Panne asked quietly. "But I didn't help you at all."

Lissa took a sip of tea and said, "you helped me more than you think. The fact that you were considerate and let your guard down around me enough to do that told me just how kind you can be. And, well, others are so intimidated by you that they don't approach you, so I thought, what if she needed someone to keep her company in her times of need?"

Panne managed a weak smile, the first one in weeks. "Thank you."

Lissa returned the smile in her own cheery way. "You bet! Now, do you want to talk about it?"

The answer was no, she didn't _want_ to, but it probably would have been for the best to talk it out, so she did.

The entire time, Lissa nodded along solemnly, only respectfully interrupting once or twice. Once she had been caught up (and sworn to secrecy once more), she sighed and leaned back in her chair. "And Virion still hasn't come back?"

Panne shook her head. "I've no clue where he possibly could have gone."

After a moment of thought, Lissa shrugged. "Nope, no idea. What a scumbag! What kind of lowlife just leaves a woman to grieve about this kind of thing alone? Ugh, I'm not even involved in this but I'm so angry!"

Panne couldn't help but smile at the sight of the young girl showing an emotion that wasn't obnoxious cheer. "You are very intimidating," she said sarcastically.

Lissa paused, looking at Panne confused. "Wait, really?"

"No." When Lissa's face fell, Panne barked a laugh. "I have never told a joke in my life, but that one was the first."

Despite the sass, Lissa laughed along with Panne. "Well, I'm glad I could cheer you up at least a little bit."

"Oh, don't worry," Panne assured her. "It will pass." Those words brought the mood down significantly, and now the sadness was palpable again.

"Right," Lissa sighed.

Feeling bad about chasing away the happy note so soon, Panne continued, "but I appreciate what you have done today. It means a lot to me."

Lissa smiled once again. "Anytime! If you ever need to talk things out again, you know where to find me. Trust me, my brother's far too busy to worry about who his sister's hanging out with."

"Thanks for the offer."

Lissa went home soon after, skipping home surrounded by the orange of the setting sun. Moments after she left, Panne succumbed to crying again, taking to her bed to try and sleep instead of thinking about what she had to go through. She had taken to sleeping in her own bed again, because even if it wasn't torn to shreds, Virion's bed would have reminded her too much of the warmth he provided her. The fact that he was no longer around to provide it during an even more difficult time than the last continued to anger her, and she swore that if he ever showed his face to her again, she'd tear his head from his shoulders.


	3. Getting The Band Back Together

Crying was a daily occurrence. Panne was thankful that nobody had to know that she had ever shed a tear, but the tough facade was hard to keep up when it broke so consistently. At least she could take solace in the fact that she didn't interact with any of the Shepherds on a regular basis.

Over the course of the rest of the post-war peace, Lissa would visit Panne once or twice a month to provide a listening ear and offer a shoulder to cry on (though that second offer was never taken). One day, she let slip a secret that nobody outside the royal family was allowed to know yet.

It wasn't a big deal, Panne wasn't the jealous type, but the way Lissa was acting, one would think she would try to do something drastic with the news.

"Gods, how embarrassing! My boyfriend doesn't even know yet, and now I tell you by accident. I'm so sorry."

Panne shrugged indifferently. "It's fine. Trust me, I don't plan on telling anyone Chrom's secret. Even if I wanted to, you're the only Shepherd I still talk to."

"Whew," Lissa sighed, wiping sweat off her brow. "I thought you might be mad or something."

Panne shook her head. "What other people do is no concern of mine."

"Right, I should have known." Lissa giggled sheepishly and began looking for any excuse to change the subject.

True to her word, a new baby was born in the castle a few months later, and like she said, Panne did not care, nor were her emotions affected.

After far too long, her mental state was starting to repair itself. Other than taking the time to cry once every few weeks, she had gone back to bottling up emotions just like she had before the whole debacle started. The child buried in the backyard with a hastily put together tombstone and Virion's betrayal had finally started to become things of the past.

And then the call went out to reassemble the Shepherds. The news reached her by way of Lissa at her front door. She seemed nervous to deliver the information that they were going to Valm to fight a megalomaniac general who had conquered the entire continent, but Panne merely nodded, grabbed her beaststone and armor, and followed her newest friend out. What Lissa knew that she didn't was that a familiar face was the reason this new campaign was kicking off, and that he was giving a flowery speech as they headed toward the castle. Knowing that the last person who wanted to see him was rapidly approaching, he quickly wrapped up and ducked away to talk strategy with Chrom and his tactician. Moments later, Lissa and Panne made their late entrance; Panne looking around curiously. "Was I the last you told?"

"I wanted to tell you personally," Lissa told her. "Everyone else was told by much faster messengers who do that for a living."

Panne couldn't argue with that, nor did she try to when she was spotted by a very friendly Shepherd. "Hey, is Panne!"

"Hello Gregor," the girls greeted, one less enthusiastic than the other.

His grin only grew as he put one arm around each woman's shoulder. "I see you ladies are liking to be fashionable but late, yes?"

Panne rolled her eyes. "Sure."

Gregor barked a hearty laugh and let the girls go. "Well, good to be seeing you, as all ways. I cannot wait to be fighting with you again!"

With a sigh, Panne muttered, "I forgot how much I didn't miss anyone here." Lissa flinched a bit when she added, "at least I don't have to see Virion."

Soon after, the Shepherds set out on their second campaign, and resumed what became business as usual during the first go-around. Every once in a while, Panne would spot a new face around camp, and something about her presence bothered her. There was no reason to be suspicious of the girl with the dark pink hair and ferocious wyvern at her side, but something about the way she carried herself seemed...familiar? Unsettling? Panne couldn't put a word to the gut feeling that told her this woman was bad news. The next time she got Lissa alone, she asked about the new recruit. "Oh, that's just Cherche. She lived in Valm and she, er, helped bring the news of their distress to us."

Panne nodded understanding. "I don't like her."

"She takes some getting used to," Lissa said with a giggle. "Her and that wyvern of hers can be pretty intimidating."

"The way she carries herself," Panne explained. "It just reeks of pretentiousness."

Lissa laughed nervously. "Huh, wonder why that is."

After Panne thanked her and left, Lissa breathed a sigh of relief, after which Maribelle approached her with a raised eyebrow. "You still haven't told her," she asked when she was confident Panne was out of hearing range.

Lissa shook her head quickly. "Oh gods, no! Can you imagine what she'd do to him? To me?"

"Oh please, I don't think she would harm you dear," Maribelle assured her.

Lissa threw her hands in the air. "Sure she would! Have you ever heard of killing the messenger?"

The girls shared a laugh, but elsewhere in camp, someone was trembling in his boots as his faithful retainer watched. "I am marvelously lucky that she hasn't spotted me yet, but I don't know how much longer I can keep this up."

Cherche rolled her eyes, which felt like a habit now. "I don't know who you're so terrified of or why, but Minerva and I can surely protect you from their wrath."

The man shook his head. "Absolutely not. It's a situation I got myself into, so I cannot have you take care of it for me."

Cherche looked at him with a puzzled expression. "Then why do you keep coming to me about it?"

The scared man couldn't come up with a response, signaling the end of the conversation.

Due to the relative normalcy of the last war, Panne wasn't expecting anything to be out of the ordinary this time. If she had known that the events following the late night surprise attack would turn everyone's world upside down, she would have either fed herself to the Risen or gone home immediately; whichever option was easier.

The mysterious warrior from the night Emmeryn was attacked revealed herself to be Lucina, Chrom's child from the future, in confidence that it would remain a relative secret. However, she vastly underestimated her aunt's potential for gossip, and as such, the entire force knew within the day. The air around the Shepherds was alive with chatter and speculation as to who had kids, what they were like, and where they would find said children. The constant talk was as annoying to Panne as one would expect, and she was not thrilled to learn that the tragedy that she had just recently come to terms with was essentially being thrown back into her face as if Lucina had personally dug up the deceased child and handed it to her. It got even worse when one potential mother started getting curious and asking around camp for opinions.

She approached Panne during a meal that day and played it off as if she were eating alongside an old friend, despite having joined the Shepherds at the tail end of the last campaign. "Say, you've heard about Lucina, right?" She asked.

"Unfortunately," Panne sighed.

Despite the very clear body language and tone telling her to go away, the woman continued, "so like, what do you think of it? You know, what do you think your child is like?"

Panne took a deep breath to try and keep herself collected. "I would rather not talk about it."

The girl bounced, her ornately decorated hair going with her. "Aw, come on, You have to have at least thought about it!" Wasn't this girl supposed to be shy? "I know I have. I wonder if I have a boy or a girl. I know I'd name a girl Soleil, but I haven't thought of a good boy name yet... Do you have any potential names?"

...It just dawned on her that she never named her lost child. "I don't want to think about myself having children ever again, thank you." Without allowing a reply, Panne quickly removed herself from the situation, hands shaking in anger. How could she move on with her life if her life insisted on reminding her that she failed to give birth to a child? Now, when all the children from the future joined, people were going to start pelting her with invasive questions. Say Panne, where's your kid? Do you think you ever got one? Do you think your child will be a Taguel like you? Do you just not want children? Just the thought of all those questions was enough to drive her insane.

Crying was quickly becoming more common.

Lissa continued to comfort her every once in a while, but that all changed after one visit to a small church town, during which the group met Lissa's...intriguing son. Once he had joined, Lissa's time had all gone to either him or his father, leaving Panne all alone.

Again.

Not long after Owain joined the ranks, the secret someone else was trying so hard to keep got spilled. It was during a battle in a sanctuary, and the Shepherds were trying to protect some villagers from a gang of thugs. Panne was battling, of course, but she was slightly more preoccupied by fuming about Maribelle's newly recruited child from the future. What did a brat like her do to deserve a child, while Panne had to be punished the way she was? Lost in her thoughts, she wandered a little too far from the rest of the group and found herself surrounded by enemies. She easily took care of one or two, but one she didn't quite see had the upper hand in the form of air transportation and a wickedly sharp lance made especially to combat beasts like Panne. After circling around out of sight, the rider leveled her beast killer at her target and charged.

"Panne!"

The voice came as a complete surprise, and instead of heeding the call and jumping out of the way of her attacker, Panne stayed perfectly still, frozen by the shock of hearing it again. Her attacker only managed to cause a minor wound before an arrow shot the pegasus out of the sky. Now equally shocked by the pain, Panne smacked the rider—and her lance—away before turning to the source of the voice. The infuriating head of blue hair jogged over to her, bow in hand and short of breath. "Whew, that was too close," he said, looking around for any other potential attackers.

He didn't take into account the one right in front of him though, and let out a high-pitched scream when Panne batted him twenty feet away like am ugly, pretentious cat toy. Not even caring that enemies might take advantage of his vulnerable nature, she bounded back into the church without a word. Virion lay prone for a moment to catch his breath, gripping the grass beneath him tight and feeling the heavy footfall of transformed taguel feet causing his bones to vibrate. "She _might_ be mad," he wheezed.

No matter how hard he might have tried, he knew that trying to speak to her during battle was a hopeless effort, so he waited until everything was wrapping up. While everyone else was distracted by Maribelle and her damaged child crying into each other's arms, Virion had slipped away to find Panne. When he found her, his call was identical to when he had saved her, but she was braced for it this time. She whirled around, hand outstretched for a high-speed smack, but Virion leaned back just in time to dodge it. "Don't talk to me," she spat, angry that her energy had gone into a smack that didn't connect.

Virion held up his hands, partially to show he meant no harm, and partially to prepare himself for any further onslaughts. "Look, I know I have a lot of explaining to do."

"You're damn right you do," she said, pointing a finger at him accusingly. "However, I am not interested in hearing your half-assed excuses."

"Half-assed?" Virion parroted indignantly. "I'll have you know everything I do is full-assed, thank you very much."

He was hoping the light-hearted comment would calm Panne down, but he overestimated her sense of humor and the gesture ended up pissing her off more. "We are done here."

"But Panne—"

"You're lucky I don't rip your head from your shoulders right here and now, so fuck off!" With that, she whirled around and marched off, holding back tears with the sheer force of her anger.

Virion bit her lip as he watched her storm away. "Shit."

That night, Panne's rage ended with a shredded tent. As she stood above its tattered remains and admired her handiwork, she was approached by a very concerned healer. "Panne...are you alright? Do...do you need a new tent?"

An ignored offer was thrown out. "She can sleep in mine. Most people think it's a ghost tent anyway, since nobody seems to notice the person sleeping inside it..."

Panne took a deep breath before answering Lissa. "No, I'll be fine. I've slept outside plenty of times before." Lissa knew the answer, but she asked about what happened anyway, flinching a bit when it actually came out of her mouth in fear of the repercussion. The answer came in the form of Panne turning around and glaring at her. "You knew he was back," she accused. When Lissa responded with stammering, she continued, "how long has he been here?"

"W-well, you see," Lissa tugged at one of her pigtails nervously. "He...kind of alerted us to the trouble in Valm, so he's been here since the start of this journey."

"And when were you planning on telling me?" Panne snapped.

Lissa pouted and gestured to the destroyed tent. "So _that_ didn't happen to me!" Panne's eyes glazed over, and Lissa could sense a mood swing coming on. She relaxed her voice before continuing, "and I wanted him to tell you himself. On his own time. None of what's happened between you is my business, so I shouldn't interfere." The starkness of the mood change overwhelmed Panne, and she felt herself get dizzy. Lissa—and some other invisible force—rushed to her side to keep her from falling, fanning her face in the meantime. "Ohmigods, are you alright? You should really take it easy."

A few moments later, Panne was sitting in the middle of her wreckage, taking deep breaths and calming herself. When Lissa was sure her friend was okay, she left with, "I know you'd rather not, but at least hear him out. You don't have to forgive him, but he seems to have a reason for not coming back."

Those words haunted Panne for the rest of that night spent under the starry sky. Why should she give a damn what Virion had to say? He said everything he needed to by leaving without a word, so what was the point of listening any further? In the end, she was only going to hear that upstart spin some flowery version of "he didn't love her now that she wasn't pregnant with his child."

Wait, no, love was never involved. Why would it have been? Regardless, hearing him try to climb out of the chasm he dug himself was not appealing, so she resolved to not even give him the opportunity.

Unfortunately, he took every opportunity he could to try and explain himself, which was met with cold shoulder after cold shoulder, and one time that even came with a punch to the gut. Days passed, and battles were fought, during which Panne and Virion both underperformed thanks to everything that was on their minds. Of course, the genius that was their tactician picked up on this immediately, and asked Lissa, who was definitely closer to Panne than anyone else, to help out a bit. "I've no clue what Virion's issue is, but I'll trust Cherche to handle it. And since I doubt the two are connected, that would leave it your job to dig Panne out of her rut."

Unsure of how she kept getting dragged into this, Lissa took her assignment with a sigh. She did have a plan though, and that involved the good old inviting both people to the same place and forcing something to happen strategy. Owain thought of it; she only hoped it would work. After extending the invitation to Panne and asking her cohort in this scheme to invite Virion, the two sat in her tent, nervously awaiting the visitors. Panne was the first to duck in, visibly unhappy with the third person in the tent. Regardless, Lissa invited her to take a seat right next to her so they could chat. "I hope you don't mind Owain being here. His father's busy for the night," she said. He actually was busy with patrolling the camp, so it wasn't a lie, and therefore couldn't be called out by Panne's sensitive ears.

"It's fine." The tone with which she said it made Lissa wish she could hear heartbeats herself. "What is the occasion for inviting me over?"

Lissa nodded, making sure to word what she said in a way that was still true enough to not cause an increase in heart rate. "I just wanted to talk about what's been going on recently is all."

Panne looked nervous, eyes darting to the third person in the tent. "With him here...?"

"Fear not," Owain assured her. "While I don't know exactly what's going on, I swear on my twitching hand that not a word of it will leave my lips." He dramatically held one hand in front of his face to illustrate his point, which ushered in a moment of awkward silence.

The silence was broken by the plan coming into place. Virion pushed into the tent and started to greet Lissa and Owain, but stopped cold in his tracks when he saw Panne sitting next to Lissa. "Er, wrong tent?"

At the same time that Panne tried to command him to leave, Lissa jumped to her feet and grabbed his arm, urging him to stay. Owain also held a hand up to tell Panne to stay where she was. "Alright you two; Robin's noticed you guys being distracted during battles, and we don't want the Shepherds losing two of their most valuable units." Perhaps Owain wasn't the best person to deliver the ultimatum, but he did, dramatically posing as he said, "in all her plucky wisdom, my mother thinks it may have something to do with your relations to each other. Now, I don't what went down between you two, but nobody is leaving this tent until it's resolved!"

Lissa nodded, walking Virion further into the tent and making him take a seat across from Panne. "If you need us to, we can step out so you can handle your problems privately, but tonight, you two are coming to a peaceful, civilized resolution to your problems. Virion, you have some real explaining to do, so you start." When she finished speaking, she nodded to Owain, who took the hint and slipped outside quietly (for once).

Panne crossed her arms and cut Virion off with, "I'm not interested in hearing his excuses."

Virion sighed, looking to the ground in between them solemnly. "I don't blame you," he said. "I know that what I did was unforgivable, inconsiderate, and extremely stupid, but you at least deserve to know why I did it."

Panne was quick to supply a reason. "Because you didn't give a damn about the feelings of the woman who was carrying your child. If there was no child to take care of, why did it matter how distraught I was going to be?"

"Hey, that's not true!" Virion leaned forward, indignant. "There was a reason I had to leave!"

Panne wasn't convinced, asking, "what if the child had lived? Would you have left then?"

Virion opened his mouth to respond, but nothing came right away. "I...that's a good question."

Without another word, she pushed him to the ground and stood to leave. "I've heard enough. We're done here." Lissa held her arms out in front of the exit with a determined look on her face, but was quickly dispatched by a threat to transform while still inside the tent and tear it to shreds.

Perhaps mending the mistakes of the past was going to be more difficult than anybody thought.

* * *

 **This is a bit of a shorter chapter, but I hope enough happens to make up for it.**


	4. Unlucky 13?

Elsewhere, far removed from the drama, someone darted through the dark of night, trembling in the cold and heart racing. Every new sound could have been a life-threatening ambush waiting to be sprung, and frankly, this person would probably have died of a fear-induced heart attack before any ambush could be performed properly. At last, he settled down in a wooded area for the night. Sleeping out in the middle of nature was less than ideal, but he could barely stand straight anymore, and his legs were aching too much to take another step. He would just have to risk catching cold, because it was that or catastrophic leg failure mid-sprint.

The sun rose on him, the warmth on his face slowly waking him up and putting a smile on his sleeping face to boot. Unfortunately, what finally did wake him up was nowhere near as pleasant. A shadow moved to obscure the sun's rays and a chuckle caused the boy's smile to vanish and eyes to fly open. "What do we have here, eh?" A strange man asked from horse back. "You lost, you funny-lookin' freak?" The boy shot to a sitting position and backed up, running straight into the tree behind him. Before he could respond, the mounted man continued with, "and what's that you got around your neck? Looks mighty valuable if ya ask me."

The boy's hand shot to his necklace, from which hung a shining purple stone. "I-it's a keepsake from my mother. For my hands only."

The man did not like that answer, a scowl growing on his face. "Oh, so it's gonna be that way, eh? Well how about I chop your hands off with that keepsake in it?" He drew a sword and pointed it at the boy menacingly.

Yelping, the boy closed his eyes tight, trembling and saying his last goodbyes under his breath. However, before the attacker could follow through on his threat, a voice called from behind him, "oi, what do you think you're doing here, scumbag?"

Startled, the man turned his horse around to see an older man in huge armor leveling an axe in his direction. "Oh, damn it..."

"'Ey, I recognize that armor," the newcomer grumbled. "You're one 'a them Riders of Dawn, ain't ya?"

"What of it, old man?" The rider spat.

Axe unwavering, the man said, "this ain't Rider territory, so unless yer aimin' to start a war with the Stonewall Knights, I'd suggest gettin' yer ass out of here as fast as yer little horse can carry you."

Gritting his teeth, the man turned his horse and left, leaving the older gentlemen and the terrified boy. "You...you saved my life!" He cried, taking a stand and shakily bowing to the man.

With a smile, the man set aside his axe and moved closer. "It was nothing. Them damned Riders've been causing all sorts of trouble 'round these parts lately. Next time I see any 'a them in our territory, I won't be so merciful."

The boy nodded quickly. "S-so, this is gonna be a weird question, but can I come with you?"

The man raised an eyebrow. "You want to join the Stonewall Knights?"

Another nod, which came with a nervous tug of an ear. "Yeah! I, er, don't have anybody to stay with, and I'd feel much safer traveling with stronger people. A-and hey, maybe I can learn to be tough from you guys!"

The older man barked a laugh, but nodded, wiping a tear from his eye. "Awright, if you say so. It won't be smooth sailin', but I s'pose I don't see a problem with you tagging along. The name's Gyral, and what I say goes, got it?"

"You bet!"

* * *

As more time passed, more children from the future joined forces with their younger parents, and the higher the number climbed, the worse Panne felt. It was nearly impossible to go a moment without running into one of the children or a parent talking without end about their own. Once the number in question reached double digits, Panne gave up on socializing altogether. And if that weren't enough to show her that interacting with the Shepherds was a lost cause, the twelfth child belonging to _Nowi_ certainly would have convinced her.

"Wow, twelve whole children!" Lissa laughed as the Shepherds marched onward, nearing their next destination. As it tended to do, the royal family clustered together nearby, listening to her talk. "Who would have thought that we would have been so...busy in a war-torn world?"

As she snickered to herself about her word choice, Owain nodded sagely. "I too find it odd that there weren't more important matters abound, but perhaps it was for the best! If not for that, you wouldn't have all of us to warn you of the dangers ahead!"

Lucina shook her head sadly. "Does that even matter, though? I managed to warn father about Emmeryn's death and only managed to delay it."

A solemn look on his face, Chrom said, "perhaps, but you did show us that the future can be changed."

As those two went on and on about that boring stuff, Lissa leaned in to Owain and asked, "so is this everybody from the future?"

Owain took a deep breath and put a finger on his chin. "Let's see..." He briefly listed off the twelve who had joined so far, straining to think of whoever was missing. "I believe we are down one, yes. My best friends have joined so I'm struggling to think of who it is, though."

Lissa couldn't fight the spark of hope that hearing those words gave her. She wondered if maybe this mysterious final child could belong to a certain someone...

In fact, her mind had made the jump before that thought could even process itself in her mind, and not long after that conversation, she found herself marching alongside Panne. "You'll never believe what I heard," she told her happily. "There's hope for you yet, Panne!"

Unamused, Panne responded with, "I'm not hopeless in any form, thank you."

Lissa laughed nervously. "Maybe I worded that wrong. What I mean is that maybe you do have a kid after all!" She was expecting the exasperated groan from Panne, so she didn't let it slow her down. "You see, I heard from a trustworthy source that we're actually missing one future child. Maybe that one's yours!"

Panne's first instinct was to shush Lissa, but anyone who overheard would likely assume any future child of hers wasn't conceived yet, so she only responded with, "I doubt it."

"I don't," Lissa nodded confidently.

"Has it occurred to you that someone could have made multiple children in the future?" Panne asked.

The question completely disarmed Lissa, and she stopped in her tracks. "Right."

Panne continued, "besides, a future child would mean I would have to make a second one, and as things are right this moment, I do not foresee myself ever opening up to anybody to that extent ever again."

"Right," Lissa said. "But what if in this future time, your child had lived?"

Panne took a deep breath, the idea honestly offending her. "First of all, that is impossible because Lucina has said she was the oldest in her time, and what happened to me took place long before she was born. Second, if that were true, why does the version of me who dies to a godsforsaken dragon deserve a child any more than I do?"

Lissa couldn't think of a proper response, so the two parted without words, Panne suddenly eager for the sun to go down so she could cry alone in her new tent. Unfortunately, before she could get that opportunity, she was approached again, this time by someone worse than Lissa, who at least meant well. He opened his mouth with intent to offer to help Panne set up her tent, but before he could form the first syllable, she snarled expletives at him until he scurried off like a coward. Shaking her head, Panne got back to work, grumbling about the _nerve_ he had to offer menial help to a perfectly capable woman. If there was ever a way to mend the gap between them, that definitely wasn't it.

Time passed and the journeys of the Shepherds continued. Every new encounter brought with it the fear that whoever they had just run into would turn out to be the mysterious thirteenth child from the future and would further cement Panne's solitude in this situation.

Hell, at this point, she was surprised Cherche's pretentious son wasn't sporting Virion's stupid blue hair.

It quickly became abundantly clear to Virion that he wasn't going to help himself out of this situation, and Cherche didn't particularly care to hear about it, so he sought out help from the only person who also knew about the problem. Lissa was exasperated when he approached her by sheepishly entering her tent just before it was time to sleep, but couldn't say no to the way he pleaded with her for advice. "I don't know how I keep getting dragged into this," she finally said, rubbing at her temple. "Look. You know why you left, I know why you left, and you definitely had a reason to, but the bottom line is that you left Panne in her time of need. Thanks for leaving me as her only companion, by the way. Super appreciated it."

Taken aback by her sass, Virion put a hand to his chest. "I...you know why I—"

Lissa stopped him there with, "no! Listen, your problem is that you keep trying to explain yourself, when she's very much not interested in hearing it. What you need to do is make it up to her without the first thing on your talking points being the reason you left. If you do make amends, and _then_ she asks? Go ahead and tell her! But until then, you need to do what you haven't done since the baby. You need to be there for her and show her that you care."

After taking a deep breath, Virion nodded. "Right. I'm sorry for bothering you," he said, bowing a bit and backing away. "Your involvement in this whole affair is truly remarkable, I hope you know."

"It's whatever," Lissa said with a roll of her eyes. "Now let me sleep a little, hm?"

"Of course, milady."

Now he had a plan. Alright, he didn't have a solid plan, but he at least knew what not to do, and that could have meant the difference between forgiveness and being found in a ditch without a face. He shuddered at the thought of his beautiful face being permanently marred by a vengeful rabbit monster, so he was definitely grateful for knowing at least one way to avoid that outcome.

And thus began the long process of trying to find a way to make it up to her. This was far easier said than done, though, because what could he possibly do? Panne wouldn't accept any help from him—not that she needed it—and doing anything with words was completely out of the question. The only solution that left was using his riches to buy her a gift of some sort, but what did she even like? During their previous affair, he never bought anything for her, everything was for the child!

But wait, there was one thing he did for her time and time again. Of course! Even if Panne didn't have any attachment to physical possessions, there was one thing she shared with humans, and that was the need for food! He could win her favor with his marvelously prepared dishes! The issue was getting her to trust him to put food in front of her. Surely she would accuse him of trying to poison her or something. Furthermore, if he just waltzed in to prepare food, everyone would assume he was cooking for the entire force, and that would diminish the meaning of his gesture considerably. Running low on ideas, he approached the one person in the entire force that could help with food related matters such as this.

"You want to make your own supper?" He asked, scratching at the back of his head. "Is...is something wrong with my cooking?"

Virion shook his head quickly. "No no, I assure you, your cooking is among some of the best in the realm." He came up with the next bit as he was saying it. "However, that's the problem. I've not been getting as many chances to practice my own craft, as it were, so I was wondering if...you could teach me! Yes, of course!" For being thought up on the fly, it was a perfect lie.

The other man laughed. "You sure have a weird way of asking for things, Virion, but okay, I'll teach you! I do love to share my enthusiasm for food with others, so I'd be more than happy to help you out!"

Virion bowed with a smile. "I truly owe you a debt, Stahl."

"No worries! Watching you get better will be plenty of payment in itself," Stahl assured him. "I'll, uh, see you in the mess tent tonight?"

"Absolutely," Virion promised.

That night, he and Stahl worked together to prepare food. Stahl was helping cook for the force while also advising Virion on his own dinner. When they were done, Virion was staring down the most delicious potato salad he had ever seen in his life. "It's perfect!" Stahl cooed. "It's...definitely not what everyone else is having, but to each his own, I guess."

After thanking Stahl for his help, Virion hastily slipped out of the tent and made up an impromptu lie to tell Panne when she questioned him sliding the plate in front of her. At least...he had one prepared, but when he placed the food in front of her and she didn't even blink, he shrugged, glad to have dodged that arrow. At least her cold shoulder towards him had that advantage. He stayed back and watched Panne dig in, only to stop after a couple of bites and stare at the food warily, as if it had just asked an invasive question. Her hand trembled before dropping her utensil and quickly covering her mouth. She dashed out of the mess tent without a word, her other hand resting on her stomach.

"Was...was it bad?" He asked himself, grabbing her utensil and poking at the potato. He was too scared to try it for himself, so he threw it out (a horrendous waste of food, if you asked him) and asked Stahl if he was sure it was prepared properly.

"Yeah, it look fantastic," he answered. "Why do you ask?"

Virion shrugged and said, "well, you see, I could not eat all of it because it was just _so_ good, so I allowed Panne to take my leftovers, since she still looked hun—"

"You did _what?"_ Stahl cut him off by uncharacteristically raising his voice and causing Virion to shrink back. "Virion! Taguel can't eat potatoes!"

"Th...they can't?"

Wide-eyed, Stahl nodded like it should have been the most obvious thing in the world. "It makes them sick to their stomachs! It might have been the world's most heavenly potato salad, but she got sick because it's potatoes." He put a hand to his forehead and took a deep breath. "Furthermore, you didn't even offer to share your leftovers with _me_ , the one who _likes_ potatoes."

"S-sorry," Virion mumbled before scooting out of his way. Gods, how stupid could one be? In all the time he cooked for her, she never even mentioned to him that she couldn't handle potatoes. Granted, it never came up, but wasn't it just common courtesy to let someone know ahead of time what foods to avoid preparing for you? Regardless, now he had done the exact opposite of what he was planning to do, and what was supposed to be a heavenly dinner turned out to be hours spent throwing up the food from earlier in the day. The bright side was that he didn't come out of the gate bragging about having made the food, so she wasn't going to hate him further for actually poisoning her. There was a chance she associated him with the food since he brought it to her, but that was something he would tackle if it became relevant.

As his stomach rumbled, he realized he had thrown out perfectly good potato salad and surrendered his dinner as well, which didn't help matters at all.

There was only one thing to do, and that was to try again and prepare two batches so he could eat too. Stahl didn't seem to question it, himself eating a good three or four helpings for himself some nights, so he got away with it easily. When he set the plate down, Panne warily said the first non-threatening thing to him since he had revealed himself to her. "There are not any potatoes in this, correct?"

"Not at all, madam," Virion assured her. "Uh, why do you ask?"

Panne shook her head. "It must have been a mistake that Stahl did not catch. My food last night had potatoes in it, and he is well aware that I cannot have those."

Having to act surprised was more difficult than he had anticipated. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry to hear that."

"No you are not."

Caught off guard by the accusation, Virion continued, "er, I can assure you this is made without a trace of potatoes." Luckily, she believed him, and he slipped away with his own food. Again, he watched Panne eat while picking at his own plate, and while her face didn't morph into one of disgust, it also didn't seem to be particularly enjoying the meal either. Was it actually terrible? Did she just not want to show how amazing it was? Or was she just completely incapable of showing emotion now?

Virion winced at the implications of the third possibility.

Once she was finished and stood to leave, he caught up to her and asked how she enjoyed it. "Why do you care?" She spat.

He hadn't planned this far ahead. "Er, because I was...asked by the person who prepared this lovely meal to get someone else's opinion on it."

Panne shrugged. "It was not vile."

"And...that's it?" Virion asked, sensing that trying to continue the conversation wasn't the greatest idea in the world.

"That is all I have to say to you," she said. "If the person who prepared supper wants my feedback, they must approach me instead of sending you in particular to ask me." With that, she walked away. She didn't exactly storm off, but her stride definitely told Virion not to follow after her. He sighed and slumped his shoulders. This was going to take some doing.

Little did either of them know, something was quickly approaching that would turn their entire situation on its head.

It was as normal as the start of a battle could get. The Shepherds decided to put an end to a quarrel between two rival bands, and in their tactician's infinite wisdom, found themselves fighting both sides at once. Panne joined the group venturing through the wooded area, fighting off the horseback knights who called themselves the Riders of Dawn, so she didn't catch a glimpse of the smallest, meekest member of the Stonewall Knights, who watched the battle unfold around him with a terrified look on his face. It didn't take long at all for Chrom to notice that the under-prepared, strangely hairy boy was completely out of place amongst the heavily armored troops around him. "You there," he called. "Hold!"

The boy jumped nearly as high as he was tall, screeching as he did. "D-don't surprise me like that!" He snapped. "I could die of heart failure!"

Chrom raised an eyebrow and lowered his sword. "...I was standing right in front of you. Ought I have waved first, or would that have been too threatening?"

The boy crossed his arms and gave a fake laugh. "Oh, aren't we the jester? People die from much lesser things you know." When he saw the side of Chrom's mouth twitch upward, he yelled, "it's no laughing matter! What if you scare me and I trip and fall and cut my head open? What then, huh?"

Immediately finding all humor in the situation lost, Chrom shook his head. "Right. Look, if you're so worried about death, maybe you should just surrender. I have no desire to spill unnecessary blood."

The boy's ears perked and his eyes lit up. "Wait, surrender is an option? Why didn't you just say so?" Without another word, he bounded into the Shepherds' ranks and was quickly found by one of his comrades from the future.

"...Yarne?" The girl asked, lowering her sword—which was the same one that was being pointed at him earlier, funnily enough.

Yarne smiled wide at the sight of a familiar face. "Lucina! I finally found you guys!"

Lucina nodded. "You sure did. Now are you fighting alongside us?"

"Not today," he said, shaking his head violently. "I've had enough of this fighting stuff to last a lifetime!"

Lucina nodded. "In that case, camp is back that way. Brady stayed behind to heal the sick, so he can keep you company."

"Thanks Lucina, you're a life saver!" With a wave, Yarne bounded off into the camp, making a beeline for the medical tent to make sure he didn't have any hidden injuries or life-threatening illnesses or anything.

After the new recruit determined that he was fine, he had to make sure, so he asked Brady to double check. And triple check. And by the time he was absolutely sure he was fine, he emerged from the medical tent to see Shepherds coming in from the battle in various states of tuckered out. As he watched them shuffle by, he was struck with the realization that someone very important to him was somewhere in this crowd. He got so wrapped up in looking for either of the people he hadn't seen in years, he didn't even notice when one of them pushed past him to get into the med tent. Before he could hear the conversation that took place inside, he ran off, eyes scanning the weary crowd.

Inside the tent, Brady nodded at Panne with a smile. "Get banged up out there?" When her wordless answer came in the form of presenting the gash on her arm, he immediately got to work. "So, did he find ya yet?"

Panne didn't want to interact with this boy more than necessary, but couldn't manage to ask her question without words. "Who is looking for me?"

"Aw, he'd hate for me to ruin the surprise," Brady answered. "Anyway, yer almost ready to go."

Panne rolled her eyes, hating how infuriatingly vague manspawn could be, and looked away from the boy treating her wound, still resenting him for...well, everything, really.

Meanwhile, that very surprise was closing in on the other person he was looking for. Someone who found himself thanking another Shepherd for their help in the day's battle. After the helper acknowledged his gratitude and left without a word, Virion shook his head. "Gods, mistake a man for a woman _one time_..." When he turned around, he screamed and jumped back, one hand covering his heart and one shooting for the bow at his back. The person staring at him in wide-eyed wonder quickly changed his expression, visibly panicking at how much he had surprised Virion. It took a moment to process the huge ears, the mane of brown hair with a patch of discoloration in the middle, and the similar, yet distinctly different armor, but once he did, he gasped. "You...you're a..."

"A Taguel, yep," the boy said with a nod. "And you're—"

Virion instantly connected the dots, but they weren't the right dots to be connecting. His face fell, and he nodded solemnly. "You must be looking for Panne, then."

The boy tilted his head, ears hanging to the side. "I mean, yeah, but you'll do for now."

Virion shook his head. "No need. I know where she is." He pointed the way the boy came and explained, "she's getting patched up at the medical tent. I'm sure the sight of another Taguel will lift her spirits." He didn't care to hear any response, so he turned and walked away, firmly convinced that there was more to him needing to see Panne. Perhaps he was a long lost romantic interest? "She would be happier with one of her own anyway," he whispered to himself before heaving a sigh.

"That was weird," Yarne said before turning back to look for the woman who was currently leaving the med tent.

She stretched her arm and poked at where her injury was, thankful that the future kid with a staff was at least good for something. "I still hate him, though," she assured herself. "His mother does not deserve such a thing." While she grumbled to herself, she failed to notice the person walking in her direction, and she ended up accidentally shoving him to the ground.

If that wasn't enough to snap her back to reality, the boy's whining surely did the trick. "Aw, geeze, what were you thinking? What would we have done if you had knocked me into someone's errant weapon and I had my heart pierced? Or what if there was an ant hill full of fire ants here? I could have died!"

Panne responded on instinct, not realizing it when she said, "oh, shut up. This behavior is not befitting of our race." It wasn't until she had grabbed his hand and yanked him to his feet that she had realized what she had said. "Did I...how embarrassing, apologies for addressing you as if you were a..." She trailed off when she got a good look at the boy's face, because she had noticed that the face was framed by two very long ears that she hadn't seen outside of a mirror in many, many years. "A Taguel!"

"You're awfully quick to accept this," the boy said timidly. He chuckled, but Panne's face remained frozen in a look of shock. "Um...hello?" Without a word, her hands shot to his ears and poked and prodded, making sure they were real and not some sort of costume. "Ow, ow! Hey, I could go deaf from this! And then I wouldn't be able to hear any approaching threats and that would mean one very dead Taguel!" After determining the ears were real, she cupped his face in her hands, looking on it in disbelief. Carefully, she turned him around looked at his tail, finding that just as genuine as his ears.

After turning him around again, Panne stuttered, looking for words. "You...you are a...how are you alive?"

"Barely," the boy answered.

Her eyes darted at the glittering stone around his neck. She could tell without even touching it that it was just as real as the one currently attached to her hip. "But how? I thought I was the last one."

"Well, you were," the boy answered. "That is, until you had me."

The world around them seemed to stop in its tracks, and Panne could feel a shiver go down her spine. "Excuse me?"

The next word out of the boy's mouth was his attempt at getting her attention, and while she could clearly watch his mouth move to form the word, she didn't hear it through her thundering heartbeat and the nearly earth-shattering realization that he was saying it _at her_. She was being referred to with a word that she never thought would describe her. Was this real? Was this boy and his concerned face even real? So many thoughts, questions, and possibilities ran through her mind at the same time, and they all tried to leave her mouth at once in a string of stuttering babble. He said something else, and the sentence ended with that word again, and it was too much for Panne to handle. In the haze of consciousness before she fainted, she noticed the one thing off about him.

Was that a patch of discolored fur on his forehead? Even worse, was that patch the same color as...

The realization made Panne so angry that she stopped fainting, catching herself from falling backwards with her foot and snapping directly back into reality. When she straightened and saw the terrified face of the boy again, she said, "who do you belong to?"

"Er...I _am_ a Taguel, you know," the boy said. "So I would think that's kind of obvious?"

"Alright, but who else?" Panne asked, starting to grow impatient.

"Shouldn't...shouldn't you know who my dad is?"

"Say his name," Panne yelled, causing the boy to flinch with a squeal.

Frantic, the boy yelled, "my dad's name is Virion, alright? Happy now?"

"That bastard." Panne whirled around, ear nearly hitting her newly discovered son in the face before she stormed off.

Yarne looked after her with a confused glance. "...Mom?"

Now, if this were any other child, they would have chased after their mother to ask what was wrong, but it didn't take Yarne very long at all to figure out just what—or in this case, who was causing this. He stormed through camp in search of his father, face deadly serious. When he spotted that head of hair, his greeting came in the form of jabbing a finger into his chest and demanding, "what did you _do_?" A very confused Virion shook his head, insisting he had no idea what was going on, which only made Yarne angrier. "Oh, there's got to be something going on if my own mother wasn't interested in speaking to me."

That caused Virion's train of thought to come to a grinding halt. "...Come again?"

Yarne nodded. "Can't you tell by my tuft of your hair? Well, it's not literally your hair, that'd be gross, and probably unhygienic. Who knows what kind of deadly parasites nest in the hair of a dead person? A-anyway, it's your hair in the sense that I—"

"Alright, I get it," Virion said, holding his hands up. "I just can't believe it! How are you alive?"

"That's a good question." With a chuckle, Yarne scratched at the back of his head. "But that isn't important right now. What's going on here, and why aren't you and mom happily in love?"

Virion was struck speechless. There, standing right in front of him, was living, breathing proof that it was indeed possible for him and Panne to have a healthy child. But was this boy _the_ child that didn't survive in this timeline, or was something else afoot here? He must have zoned out, because Yarne snapped his fingers in front of his face and repeated the question. "Oh, right. Well, this is sort of a long story."

"I have time," Yarne said, crossing his arms.

With a sigh, Virion put his hand around his newfound son's shoulder and lead him to his tent so the story could be told in secret, away from everybody else. He didn't know if even this boy would forgive him for what he had done, but if he did, perhaps this was just the bargaining chip he was looking for to help him get back in Panne's good graces.


	5. Parenthood: The Whirlwind Tour

Needless to say, the presence of another Taguel in the ranks of the Shepherds sent some whispers through the rest of the army. Many wondered if he was related to Panne in some way, or if he was just an unrelated survivor from somewhere else. Others got the idea that perhaps he was her child from the future, but anyone who knew how fiercely against the idea she was dismissed that possibility entirely. Nobody thought to ask one of the future children (or gods forbid, Yarne himself) about it, so the speculation was largely lost on them.

When the rumors reached Lissa, she immediately knew the answer and approached Panne about it, bragging in a singsong voice. "So who was right after all, hm?"

Even though she knew what this was about, Panne asked with a roll of her eyes, "what were you right about, Lissa?"

"The new boy! He's totally yours, right?"

Panne hung her head low with a sigh. "I...suppose he is. There is no other explanation for that...disgusting patch of hair."

"I said yours, not Virion's, silly," Lissa laughed. "Anyway, have you spoken to him? Perhaps he could explain things a bit."

Panne shook her head stubbornly. "Absolutely not. I've no interest in hearing what my future self did, especially if it involves that man."

Lissa bit her lip. "Alright, but what if it wasn't the future you? He could be the same one that..." Her point was quickly squashed by the reminder that this line of reasoning had already been discussed, taking the wind from her sails a bit. "Well, either way, I think him being here could go a long way in making all this a thing of the past."

"No amount of children from the future could ever convince me to forgive him," Panne insisted.

"You don't really have to," Lissa admitted. "I'm just saying he could shed some light on the situation."

Panne sighed. "I suppose."

"Besides," Lissa continued. "I think it would do your mental state well to have another Taguel around."

Panne thought that unlikely, but she accepted the suggestion without protest, mostly so the conversation would end.

Meanwhile, Virion wished he could be lucky enough to end the conversation he was having. "How could you do that?" Yarne demanded.

"I told you, I had my reasons," Virion snapped. "But that's not what's important here. What matters now is finding a way to convince your mother to at least forgive me."

Yarne crossed his arms tight over his chest. "I suppose there's something to be said about you wanting forgiveness, at least. But still, why do you care so much about being forgiven if my mom was apparently so insistent that you would never be a couple? It seems...unlike the stories about you I heard."

"Well, that's simple," Virion started. "I made a mistake, and I must correct the wrongs I committed."

Yarne remained unconvinced. "If this all works out, you'll go home a hero, and you can leave everything and everyone else behind like nothing ever happened, so you could easily let this all be a thing of the past. So why do you care?"

Virion took a moment to think of a response. "Look..."

However, dwelling on the subject was only making Yarne more indignant. "Hell, perhaps it would have been better if you had stayed gone!"

"Hey!"

"You hurt mother in more ways than I can count, and then you go and hurt her again by coming back when _your_ country needed help. I'm starting to think you only care about making it up to her because you're scared she would ruin your reputation otherwise."

Finally, Virion snapped, yelling, " _enough_!" His son flinched when he stomped his foot, allowing him to go on his tirade. "Everyone I spoke to went on and on about how much it hurt Panne, and I understand that, but hasn't anyone ever considered how this situation affects me?"

Yarne's instinct was to get mad again, but he decided to indulge his father. "Excuse me?"

"I know it's selfish, but you must consider what losing a child did to the both of us," Virion explained. "I bonded with a child before it was even born, and it didn't get to live the life it deserved, the life I was so intent to give it, and don't you think that hurt me too? I knew full well that I had hurt Panne, and I couldn't face her after all I'd done to her."

"So you left," Yarne finished.

Virion sighed, his shoulders drooping. "Yes. I left. Something happened in Roseanne that required my urgent attention. I thought it would be a week-long trip, a month a most. Just enough time to let our emotions stabilize. And I was wrong."

Yarne was speechless. "Dad…"

"And now I'm back, but it's far too late. She will never forgive me for what I've done." Virion took a deep breath to try to calm himself.

A silent moment passed between the father and son, after which the son was the first to speak. "I can help you, I guess."

"You don't have to," Virion said with a sigh. "I understand if you're simply too angry to associate with your father again. After all, he is a selfish dastard."

Yarne shook his head. "I know mother would never listen to you as things are now, but perhaps she would lend an oversized ear to me. I can help."

"I appreciate that," Virion said. With that, the two parted ways, Yarne determined to find his mother, and Virion looking forward to being able to work through his emotions alone.

It took a few days for Panne to accept Yarne's presence, but when she did, it happened all at once, as if a switch had been flipped in her mind. Hours after awkwardly giving him the cold shoulder and running off for what felt like the hundreth time, she approached him all at once; which, in this case, means in her beast form and at full speed. After he barely avoided being tackled to the ground, she took a swipe at him, which nearly took the patch of blue hair from his head. He yelped and screamed for her to stop, but she was persistent. Finally, a fed up Yarne held his beaststone high and transformed in a flash of the brilliant purple light. "Enough!" He snapped, taking a swipe and meeting his mother's attack with equal force. "What's your problem?"

Panne leaned back onto her hind legs, a smile (somehow) discernible on her transformed face. "About time. All this time and I had not seen you take to your beast form once. I was starting to fear you could not even transform."

"How rude," Yarne whined, mimicking her movement. "What kind of Taguel would I be if I couldn't even transform?"

"Exactly," Panne responded flatly. "Now follow me." Without another word, she turned and made her way to the edge of the Shepherds' camp for the day, leaving Yarne to follow her and ask a thousand questions that wouldn't be answered. When they were a satisfactory distance from the camp, she whirled around to see that he still hadn't reverted either, which was what she planned for. She charged at him, putting enough force in her attacks to sting if any of them connected. Completely oblivious to what was going on, Yarne yelped again, dodging her attacks and frantically crying for her to stop. Finally, Panne got frustrated and bellowed, "fight back already!"

"What...?" Yarne asked, somehow managing a pitifully small voice even in beast form.

Pausing long enough to sit on her haunches again, Panne said, "is it not obvious that I am not trying to hurt you? This is merely a practice battle."

Yarne stopped in his tracks and managed an awkward laugh. "Heh...I knew that..."

Panne shook her head. "How am I supposed to believe you belong to me if you are not even well-versed in battle?"

"Well—"

"And did I teach you nothing of Taguel traditions?"

"Are practice battles something Taguel do?" Yarne asked.

Panne paused. "I...don't know."

"Then how am I supposed to know?"

Caught off guard by his reasoning, Panne shook her head. "Regardless, I should have at least taught you to fight if the future is half as bad as the rest of your kind claim it was."

"Don't say my kind as if those of us to came back to save you are some sort of unwelcome vermin," Yarne snapped. "And no, you didn't teach me to fight, because you died while I was still young."

Panne was at first speechless by Yarne's sudden attitude, but then her curiosity was piqued when he delivered his answer to all those rapid-fire questions. "I did?"

Yarne nodded, his ears drooping as he did. "I don't remember what it's like to have a mother at all. Much less a Taguel one."

"I see... That would explain a lot." Panne heaved a sigh and reverted to her human form. A relieved Yarne followed her lead and followed his mother to the side of a nearby tree, where she took a seat. She took an extended silence to word her question, but finally, she asked, "are you my...first child?"

Yarne raised an eyebrow. "Um...I'm pretty sure. I don't have any siblings, old or young."

"No, that's not...hm." Again, Panne stopped dead in her tracks, unsure of how to put her feelings into words. She didn't know that Virion had already filled their son in on the situation and thus she could ask her question bluntly, so a proper way to word it eluded her.

Of course, it didn't help that Yarne was oblivious to the question she was trying to ask, so he couldn't streamline the process.

Finally, an idea came to Panne. "I got it. Are you older than Lucina?"

Yarne shook his head. "She's the oldest of all of us."

"That is more confusing," Panne said with a sigh. This meant that either the future timeline version of her tried to have another child, or that the first attempt came much later than it did originally, and if Yarne couldn't remember his mother, there was no way to know which answer was right. It had to be the second option, right? There was no way any version of her would forgive what Virion did. But maybe he didn't do it in the other timeline? Robin probably would have known the answer... Frustrated, Panne leaned her head against the tree and heaved another sigh.

"Mom...?" There was that word again, and it was just as strange to her ears as it was the first time it was said. "Is everything okay?"

Not much of anything was okay, but Panne couldn't say that out loud, could she? Yeah, they were far from camp, but letting herself get emotional in front of her son was completely out of the question. "You may leave," she said, trying to hide the shakiness in her voice. He tried to offer some words, but his attempt was met with a second, more stern request to leave her alone. Intimidated, he scurried back to camp, leaving Panne alone. Again. Familiar feelings were rising within her, and it took her back to around two years ago, which was not somewhere she ever wanted to be again.

The knowledge that she wasn't prepared to raise a child was back in full force. Sure, that child was fully grown and wouldn't need raising in the traditional sense, but there was still so much he needed to learn, and that was all squarely on her shoulders. She wasn't going to get any help; hell, she was sure Virion wasn't even aware of what was going on! The situation was shaping up to be a much faster version of what she would have gone through had she not enlisted Virion's help all that time ago, which made it _worse_ because the skipped developmental years would have been the easy part! Now she had to deal with a child who already knew everything she could teach, and would be facing new problems. Gods, what was _puberty_ like for a half-human, half-Taguel son of a shameless philanderer? Was he still going through it or was the storm past?

The solution back then was much simpler, and it came in the form of Virion's willingness to support her, but no such gift was going to be given this time. She was on her own, and that knowledge was overwhelming.

She allowed herself to cry, only moving from her spot once the tears were completely dry. The setting sun illuminated her way back to camp, and once she was back, she went straight into her tent and slept, hoping that everything would somehow resolve itself in the morning.

Of course, it hadn't. Despite her strongest hopes, there was no way in hell she was going to see Yarne and immediately be blessed with the knowledge of how to handle the situation, which became painfully obvious when she couldn't bring herself to look directly at him without getting emotional. The next few days consisted of several similar mood swings, and many of them ended in Panne crying against a tree or in a clearing outside of camp. Every time, she would attempt to train Yarne and understand his cowardice and origins, and every time, he would be less receptive to the training than the last. Some days, Yarne would retreat to his father's tent, confusing his retainer and seeking solace and advice, and every time, he would be told the same thing. "My experience with her was during a time of pregnancy, so that was a special case."

The first time he heard it, Yarne huffed. "Yeah, but surely that's given you some clues or something."

Virion shook his head. "Here, sit in front of me."

"What...?" Yarne did as he was told despite the confusing command. The instant he was comfortable, Virion started picking at his hair. "H-hey what are you doing?"

"Your hair is just riddled with twigs and sticks. You are a Taguel, not shrubbery." His expression didn't change as he plucked the gunk from Yarne's hair, tossing it to the side when he was done.

Yarne couldn't help but laugh. "I didn't know you had a sense of humor, dad."

Virion finally cracked a smile at the sound of his son's laughter. "Your father is just full of surprises my boy."

"I don't suppose he could surprise me by telling me how to deal with my mother?" Yarne asked, causing Virion to bark a laugh of his own.

"Always the insistent one, I see. You get that from me." Yarne wasn't sure whether to thank his father for that or not, so he let him continue. "I don't have the foggiest idea of what your mother is trying to accomplish, but I see no harm in going along with it. If I learned anything from my time with her, it's that she has strange ways of accomplishing her goals. Don't be intimidated, just let her do what she does."

"Alright, I suppose I can try that," Yarne said, managing the best shrug he could without disturbing the hand probing his hair. "I mean, it's not like they're real battles, right? She won't kill me if I fail or anything."

"Exactly!" Virion finally retracted his hands from Yarne's head and clapped them together to clean them. "Now get out there and make your father proud.

"I will! And I'll put in a good word for you while I'm at it."

However, following his father's advice was easier said than done. The training sessions only ramped up in intensity and Panne would get frustrated no matter how hard Yarne tried to play along. Every time, Virion would say the same thing while cleaning out his son's hair, but it never made any more sense to him. It felt as if Panne was forgetting the whole training part and focusing on her anger towards Virion and the world in general, like that blue patch of hair was some sort of trigger. Finally, the frustration boiled over. "If you want to get to know me so bad, why don't you just talk to me?" Yarne demanded after one session in which his mother got particularly aggressive. "Surely there must be a less dangerous way!"

Panne reverted to her human form and tossed a hair-covered ear over her shoulder. "I am a warrior, and combat is the only way I know to learn someone."

Yarne seemed unconvinced. "Are you sure about that? I mean, you didn't learn anything about my father during the the time between conflicts?"

He knew mentioning his father would sour Panne's mood, and her face showed him he was absolutely right; but it was a gamble he needed to make. "Of course not."

Another gamble was about to come from his mouth, but he needed to say it. "Not even during the whole...erm, situation?"

Panne was completely taken aback. Yarne watched several variations of many different emotions swirl across her face before she hissed, "how do you know about that?"

"He told me," Yarne said flatly. "He told me everything."

"So you have been talking to him," Panne responded, disgust in her voice.

Yarne crossed his arms defiantly. "Yeah, I have. And maybe you should too!" It was as loud as he could ever remember speaking, and he could tell by listening to his mother's heartbeat that it caught her off guard.

Finally, she scoffed and shook her head. "Why should I? He doesn't care for us, and we shouldn't care for him."

Now, Yarne's adrenaline was leaving him, and his voice had gone back to being timid. "He cares for us than you might think. I know he wants to make things better, so maybe you should let him try."

"Everyone says that," Panne snapped, the frustration starting to get to her. "They don't know what I've been through. They don't know how it feels."

"Mother..."

"Leave."

Another day, another training session doomed to end in tears. As Yarne turned to leave, he said, "he still cares, and someday, he'll find a way to prove it."

The time came sooner than either of them could have expected. Mere days later, the Shepherds found themselves storming the castle of the very man who destroyed Virion's home. Despite the high spirits about it (some even shouted obscenities at him jovially), it was a hard fought battle, and all of their efforts culminated in facing the man down in his throne room. That battle was even tougher due to the confined space, but the Shepherds pushed forward. Somewhere in the madness, Yarne and Panne found themselves facing down the Conqueror himself. "This is the guy that chased dad out of his country," Yarne growled, readying himself to pounce.

"Didn't stop him from going back," Panne grumbled before putting the pettiness aside for the time being. There was no use getting wrapped up in thinking about that when there was a battle to be fought, especially when he son was charging straight at—

Oh gods, Yarne was charging straight at the Conqueror. He took a swipe, but Walhart's surprisingly nimble horse moved out of the way, letting him smack his attacker with the broad side of his axe. Yarne went tumbling across the throne room floor and Walhart turned his attention to the advancing group behind Panne. "I know not what you are," he said in his booming, intimidating voice. "But I assume there are not many of you left. I do not wish to be responsible for the extinction of a species, so I will give you this single act of mercy. Do not waste it."

Panne could hear a distant voice telling her to fall back, and she knew not heeding her tactician's words could end in some stern words after this was all over, but watching Yarne get swatted like a fly enraged her past the point of being afraid of some manspawn's reprimands. Her unwavering battle stance caught Walhart's eye, and he finally looked directly at her with a raised eyebrow. "Do not think your words will sway me," Panne snarled. "We are the mighty Taguel, and we will not back down."

"Maybe backing down in the face of a megalomaniac dictator with a giant axe should become Taguel tradition," Yarne groaned, remaining quiet enough that only his mother could hear him. Despite the suggestion, he got to his feet and watched Walhart's profile as his face morphed completely.

In the blink of an eye, his expression changed from a calm, unperturbed one to that of unyielding rage. His eyes wide and teeth clenched, he roared, "so be it!" He hefted his axe over his shoulder and tossed it with the deadly precision only the Conqueror could manage. Luckily, Panne was faster, and while the axe stuck into the ground where she was a split-second ago, she was charging at him head-on.

"Mother!" Yarne was deadly terrified. If he wore pants, they would probably have been soiled, but he knew he couldn't let his mother do this alone.

Walhart barked a mocking laugh as he faced down the two beasts. "You think The Conqueror would so readily leave himself unarmed against even the weakest of foes?" In the blur of the instant, it seemed to manifest from nowhere, but before the Taguel knew it, he was wielding a wickedly sharp red sword. He pointed it at Panne, who tensed, ready to dodge at a split-second's notice, but when his attackers got closer, he turned it and slashed to his right, where Yarne was.

With a yelp, Yarne fell backwards, a huge gash opening in his chest. Panne wordlessly abandoned her assault and rushed to Yarne's side, where purple light was starting to dance around him. "Yarne, no," she snapped. "If you revert now, you'll bleed to death."

Those words coaxed another pathetic sound from her son, and he immediately stopped attempting to transform. "Mom..."

"Don't talk either," she said quickly, putting a paw on his shoulder. "I'll get you to a healer."

"Mom...behind you."

Panne saw the shadow on the tiled floor beneath Yarne, and it was one of a man with a giant axe above his head. She turned to see Walhart, his axe in hand once more, ready to strike. "Now I cleave you both in two with one fell swing!" The room seemed to rumble with his roar, and even Panne flinched at the sound. His axe came down, and Panne swiped at it with all her strength. Somehow, she managed to divert it just enough to send it into the ground at her side, but felt a stinging pain in her shoulder as she did. Even in her beast form, she had managed to dislocate her shoulder from the force. She turned and began attempting to move Yarne out of harm's way, but it was the wrong move. Walhart moved to swing his axe again, and Yarne cried out, but it was too late for Panne to react.

However, it wasn't too late for an arrow to sprout from a chink in Walhart's armor, causing him to miss a third, miraculous time. He turned to see a lone archer, knocking another arrow into his bow. "You leave my family alone," Virion demanded, causing a gasp to ripple through the Shepherds.

"D...dad!"

Walhart narrowed his eyes at Virion, who laughed at this reaction. "Ah, do you remember me, perhaps?"

A tense moment passed, but Walhart finally said, "no."

Virion blinked and shook his head indignantly as he watched Walhart pluck the arrow from his side without flinching. "Y-you don't? Virion? Duke of Roseanne? Nothing?"

"A horse does not remember the flies he swats with his tail," Walhart explained.

Virion shook his head. "No matter. You will remember me as the last man whose family you dared to mess with." He let fly his second arrow, which Walhart ducked out of the way of before charging. Virion's face paled as he watched the giant man and steed gallop toward him, but he managed to leap out of the way, hitting the ground hard and rolling back to his feet. He sprinted for Panne and Yarne's side, where he put a hand on Yarne's head. "Are you two okay?"

Panne was too shocked to respond, but Yarne made no secret of his condition. "I'm not okay. I need a healer."

"I'll get you one, son," Virion said, ruffling Yarne's hair. He then turned to Panne and asked, "and how are you?"

Panne's shocked expression couldn't even be hidden by her beast form as she wordlessly stared into his eyes. "You..."

"We have a lot to talk about," Virion said. "But for now, we need to save our son."

Panne was indignant for all of a second, starting with, "my..." but shaking the thought from her head. "You're right."

What Virion did next shocked Panne almost as much as the previous stunt. He took off his shirt. Before she could ask, he instructed Yarne to revert, and proceeded to quickly wrap the fabric around Yarne's wound. "This should stop the bleeding long enough for us to get you a healer."

Yarne nodded weakly. "Right..."

With that, Virion and Panne turned to face Walhart, who had gotten distracted by Chrom. "You think that's what you've done?" His voice boomed. "What your sister did before you? No, she shouted some nonsense and leapt off a rock! Such weakness!"

Panne's eyes narrowed at these accusations, and while Chrom delivered his level-headed response, she turned to Yarne and said, "Hang on just a little longer."

Virion nodded agreement. "I'll watch your back. You just focus on ripping his pompous head from his broad oaf shoulders."

"You are the last person to call someone pompous," Panne snapped.

Walhart leveled his axe at Chrom and said, "and longer than you will... Come then, flea, and die for your peace!"

"No more banter," Virion said, unable to hide his smile. "Go!"

As Chrom and Walhart's weapons clashed, Panne pounced, ripping into the back of Walhart's bright red armor. Her strength couldn't quite reach his skin, but he recoiled anyway, turning around with intent to hit her with the broad side of his axe. She ducked out of the way and nimbly moved to Chrom's side. "Er, thanks," Chrom said. "I hadn't realized you were still in fighting shape.

"You underestimate the Taguel," Panne said. "Just as he has."

"Right." Chrom nodded and jumped at Walhart with his sword at the ready. They clashed once more, but again their battle was cut short, but this time by one of Virion's arrows flying into the newly opened hole in his armor.

Walhart roared in pain and whirled around. He wasted no time in charging at his attacker, who still had the helpless Yarne behind him. Virion gulped, dropped his bow, and picked up Yarne in a bridal carry, attempting to run back to the safety of the Shepherds' ranks. Panne's heart dropped into her stomach as she watched Walhart close the distance between himself and Virion. "Panne, I know what you're thinking," Chrom warned. "Don't—"

Without hesitation, Panne bolted from Chrom's side, running as fast as her legs would take her. She knew the safest option would be to barrel into Virion and Yarne so all three of them could be taken to safety without her having to slow down at all, but that would have surely opened Yarne's wound back up. Robin probably would have had a better plan, but for Panne, the only option was...

She leapt in front of Walhart's axe as he brought it down, crying out in pain as the blade entered her back. Despite the pain, she kicked out with her hind legs blindly, somehow managing to take out the legs of Walhart's horse. Both he and his mount tumbled to the ground as Panne's front legs gave out from under her and she collapsed. "Mom!"

" _Panne!_ " Virion came to a stop, whirling around to see Panne's lifeless form on the ground, the blade still in her back. Walhart scrambled to his feet, but before he could wrest his weapon from Panne's body, Chrom swooped in with the finishing blow.

"My conquest...ends here..." Walhart croaked as his life left his body.

The Conqueror, the man who brought so much pain and strife to Valm and its people, had perished. Virion's homeland was saved. The celebrations would have to wait though, because there were two badly injured bunnies that needed to be taken care of.


End file.
